IY I  AM  A  SOCIALIST 


CHARLES  EDWARD   RUSSELL 


THE  LIBRARY 
OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


WHY   I   AM  A  SOCIALIST 


WHY  I  AM  A  SOCIALIST 


By 


CHARLES  EDWARD  RUSSELL 

Author  of  "'The  Uprising  of  the  Many."  "  Lawless  Wealth," 
"Songs  of  Democracy,"  etc,,  etc. 


HODDER  &  STOUGHTON 

NEW  YORK 

GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


Copyright,  1910 
By  George  H.  Doran  Company 


THE    OUINN    A    BODEN    CO.   PSE88 
RAHWAY,    N.   J. 


URL        ITA^^ 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  The  Story  of  Two  Cents  and  a  Bucket  op  Coal    .  1 

II.  The  Story  of  the  Bucko  Mate 19 

III.  More  About  Bucko  Mates 38 

IV.  The  Story  of  the  Gravity  Yard 52 

V.  The  Suicide  Slip  from  Rivington  Street     ...  68 

VI.  A  Boy's  Opportunity 83 

VII.  The  Men  Behind  the  Dreadnaughts  ....  100 

VIII.  Two  Typical  Wars 123 

IX.  A  Note  About  Poverty 139 

X.  The  Record  of  Regulation 171 

XI.  Dr.  Sherman's  Celebrated  Specific       ....  205 

XII.  An  Apology  for  Stock  Watering 228 

XIII.  A  Plea  for  the  Rich 248 

XIV.  Some  Things  that  Might  Easily  Be     ...       .  270 
XV.  The  Way  of  the  World 288 


^-»  *-»  f  m  m  /■"» 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   STORY   OF   TWO   CENTS  AND   A   BUCKET   OF   COAL 

Life  in  the  great  East  Side  district  of  New  York  City 
revolves  within  exceedingly  narrow  limits,  and  conditions 
that  in  better  favored  regions  would  be  trivial  become  here 
of  grave  moment.  This,  no  doubt,  is  true  generally  of  all 
poverty-stricken  and  over-crowded  areas,  where  the  struggle 
for  existence  being  primitive,  always  bitter,  and  usually 
perilous,  excludes  all  lesser  topics.  The  comparatively 
small  world  of  the  well-fed  and  the  well-to-do  sweeps  on 
ignorant  of  this,  as  of  all  other  actual  (not  fictional) 
characteristics  of  the  habitat  of  the  poor,  until  some  event 
not  to  be  ignored  strikes  sharply  for  the  moment  on  the 
superior  consciousness.  Such  a  thing  happening  in  the 
winter  of  1891-2  suddenly  revealed  the  nakedness  of  East 
Side  life  through  the  discovery  that  the  region  was  dis- 
turbed by  so  small  a  matter  as  two  cents. 

The  winter  had  been  severe.  In  no  season  can  life  in 
the  tenement  houses  be  said  to  be  joyous,  but  in  a  bitter 
cold  winter  what  is  ordinarily  but  gloomy  discomfort  be- 
comes acute  suffering.  Some  unfortunates  freeze  to  death 
in  the  streets;  many  in  the  houses  have  difficulty  to  keep 
alive.  The  old-style  tenements,  of  which  an  amazing  num- 
ber still  exist  in  New  York,  were  ill-adapted  for  human 
habitation  in  cold,  or  I  may  say,  in  any  other  kind  of 
weather;  the  doors  and  windows  gaped,  the  walls  were 
thin,  the  floors  ill-laid,  the  rooms  at  all  times  damp;  and 

1 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

for  the  least  degree  of  tolerable  comfort,  not  to  say  for 
mere  life  itself,  heavy  coal  fires  were  indispensable. 

By  the  regulations  of  the  Board  of  Health  only  anthra- 
cite coal  could  be  burned  in  the  city.  For  years  the  retail 
price  had  been  $5  a  ton.  I  suppose  that  few  persons 
in  the  worst  of  the  East  Side  tenement  houses  had  ever 
bought  at  one  time  a  ton  of  coal.  For  one  reason,  there 
was  no  place  to  put  it;  and  for  another  the  average  tene- 
ment dweller  never  had  at  one  time  $5  to  expend  on  coal. 
Universally,  the  poorest  bought  their  coal  at  the  corner 
grocery,  a  pailful  at  a  time.  There  the  price  was  ten  cents 
for  a  pailful. 

When  this  was  translated  into  ton  weights  it  meant  that 
they  were  buying  coal  at  the  rate  of  $15  a  ton. 

Of  a  sudden,  in  the  coldest  week  of  the  winter,  it  was 
announced  that  the  wholesale  price  of  coal  had  been  in- 
creased fifty  cents  a  ton  and  the  corner  grocery  had  ad- 
vanced the  price  of  coal  by  the  bucket  from  ten  to  twelve 
cents. 

This  was  the  two  cents  over  which  the  East  Side  was 
concerned.  On  its  face  and  to  the  comfortable  the  state- 
ment seems  extravagant,  but  the  two  cents  advance  in  the 
coal  price  made  a  great  difference  to  the  East  Side.  In- 
dustrial conditions  that  winter  had  been  as  severe  as  the 
weather.  Many  men  were  out  of  work,  the  destitution 
that  always  lowers  over  that  unhappy  region  was  more 
than  usually  black,  and  families  that  had  balanced  the 
relative  pains  of  freezing  and  of  starving  before  they  spent 
ten  cents  for  a  bucket  of  coal  heard  with  dismay  of  the 
increased  cost  of  warmth. 

As  a  rule  the  East  Side  accepts  in  dogged  patience  its 
allotted  troubles,  but  some  unwonted  demonstrations  took 
place  over  this  situation,  and  as   (in  the  view  of  uneasy 

2 


Two  Cents  and  a  Bucket  of  Coal 

souls  that  dwelt  in  daily  prophecy  of  proletarian  uprising) 
these  stirrings  were  assumed  to  be  menacing,  the  attention  of 
the  rest  of  the  city  was  drawn  thereto.  The  two  cents 
became  an  item  of  news.  I  was  then  a  reporter  on  the 
the  New  York  Herald,  and  the  Herald  assigned  me  to 
investigate  the  cause  of  the  increase  and  its  results  upon 
the  poor. 

The  causes  were  well  enough  known  to  anyone  thai  had 
kept  track  of  current  events,  a  practice  that,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  has  astonishingly  few  followers.  All  of  the  an- 
thracite coal  mines  were  in  a  region  lying  between  100 
and  170  miles  from  New  York  City.  Three  railroads, 
the  Philadelphia  &  Reading,  the  Central  of  New  Jersey, 
and  the  Lehigh  Valley  were  chiefly  engaged  in  transport- 
ing the  coal  to  market  and  were  also  the  owners  of  many 
mines.  Looking  somewhat  ahead  of  his  times  towards  the 
industrial  concentration  and  consolidation  to  be,  Mr.  Alex- 
ander McLeod,  a  daring  speculator  of  Philadelphia,  had 
managed  to  unite  the  three  railroads.  This  secured  to 
the  combination  the  practical  control  of  the  anthracite  coal 
output  (since  these  roads  either  mined  or  carried  almost 
all  the  coal  produced),  and  the  first  act  of  the  new  associa- 
tion was  to  advance  the  wholesale  price  of  coal  fifty  cents 
a  ton.  This,  when  it  had  reached  the  tenement  house  dwell- 
ers, meant  an  increase  of  two  cents  a  bucket. 

I  climbed  the  rickety  and  ill-smelling  stairway  of  many 
a  rear  tenement  to  see  what  this  increase  signified  for  the 
people  on  whom  it  was  levied.  Some  rather  painful  things 
had  happened  over  there.  A  family  in  Henry  Street  had 
taken  the  lids  from  the  kitchen  stove  to  increase  the  output 
of  heat  and  retard  the  consumption  of  coal,  and,  sleeping 
on  the  floor  together,  had  been  asphyxiated  by  the  escap- 
ing fumes.     In  another  quarter,   inhabited  by  foreigners, 

3 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

people  had  broken  the  windows  of  a  grocer  who  re- 
fused to  sell  at  the  old  price.  Wherever  an  old  building 
was  being  wrecked  there  was  a  horde  of  little  children 
picking  up  the  precious  fragments  of  wood,  sometimes 
at  the  risk  of  their  lives.  The  charitable  societies  working 
hard  to  cope  with  the  situation  yet  were  overwhelmed  by 
it,  for  indeed  the  need  was  too  great;  no  ordinary  society 
could  have  provided  for  so  many  persons  that  had  neither 
work  nor  fuel.  An  old  woman  in  a  rear  tenement  attic, 
who  with  her  needle  had  managed  for  years  to  win  some 
scanty  subsistence,  was  found  dead  in  her  bed  from  starva- 
tion and  cold.  I  went  up  to  see  the  place,  and  the  snow 
from  the  skylight  lay  in  a  little  drift  across  the  bed,  so 
it  was  no  wonder  she  died;  she  had  over  her  nothing  but 
a  rag.  The  other  people  in  the  house  told  me  they  would 
have  helped  her  if  they  had  known — in  itself  a  bitter  com- 
mentary; for  the  house  was  but  a  wretched  shell,  the  in- 
habitants all  but  destitute  and  how  they  could  have  af- 
forded help  I  could  not  pretend  to  say. 

It  struck  me  as  rather  odd  and  incongruous  that  among 
well-fed  and  comfortable  persons  there  was  a  disposition 
to  base  upon  the  situation  much  philosophical  reflection  to 
the  effect  that  the  poor  brought  their  troubles  upon  them- 
selves. For  instance,  they  were  so  improvident,  it  was 
urged;  they  bought  their  coal  by  the  pailful,  which  was 
the  most  expensive  way.  If  they  would  practice  thrift, 
save  a  little  money,  and  buy  a  ton  of  coal  at  a  time,  of 
course  they  would  get  it  at  the  ton  rate.  I  suppose  that 
it  was  because  I  had  been  so  much  among  the  tenements 
that  these  comments,  offered  in  obvious  good  faith,  seemed 
to  me  to  possess  a  kind  of  grim  and  almost  horrible  humor. 
I  had  mind  upon  the  dwelling  places  I  had  seen,  and 
upon  the  people   in   them,   and   the   idea   of  their   saving 

4 


Two  Cents  and  a  Bucket  of  Coal 

money  from  their  hand-to-mouth  existence,  or  the  idea 
of  dumping  a  ton  of  coal  in  the  midst  of  their  cramped, 
crowded  quarters,  moved  me  to  sardonic  mirth.  I  was, 
to  be  sure,  largely  of  the  opinion  apparently  held  by  all 
other  comfortable  persons,  that  all  was  well  in  the  world, 
and  if  here  and  there  an  imperfection  showed,  why,  a 
little  tinkering — no  more.  I  was  also  in  the  main  prepared 
to  accept  the  notion  that  if  people  got  hurt  by  the  profit 
hunt  the  fact  was,  of  course,  melancholy,  but  the  hunt  was 
right  and  good  and  not  to  be  criticised.  Yet  I  confessed 
at  times  that  none  of  these  theories  seemed  quite  to  cover 
the  cases  of  the  poor  on  the  East  Side. 

From  this  tour  of  investigation  I  was  sent  to  the  region 
of  the  mines  to  note  what  upon  the  miners  had  been  the 
effect  of  the  new  order  of  things  and  of  the  process  of  in- 
dustrial consolidation  and  unification.  Here,  to  my  aston- 
ishment, I  found  even  greater  and  more  general  suffering 
than  there  had  been  in  the  tenement  houses,  though  from 
a  different  cause.  That  they  might  keep  down  the  supply 
of  coal  and  thereby  support  its  increased  price  the  gentle- 
men in  control  of  the  new  railroad  combination  had  re- 
stricted mining  operations  to  work  on  no  more  than  two 
days  a  week.  The  result  was  that  of  all  the  coal  miners 
in  the  region  hardly  one  was  able  to  earn  support  for 
himself  and  his   family. 

This,  being  probably  a  temporary  restriction,  might  not 
have  been  particularly  serious  if  there  had  been  for  years 
anything  like  a  normal  condition  of  employment  in  the 
mining  region ;  but  the  fact  was  that  the  miners  had  worked 
under  a  system  that  made  them  unable  to  accumulate  or 
to  save,  or  to  live  otherwise  than  precariously;  so  that 
they  were  unprepared  for  the  least  reduction  of  their  earn- 
ing power.     They  were,  in  fact,  the  slaves  of  the  mine 

5 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

ewners.  I  shall  expect  this  term  to  be  regarded  by  the 
uninitiated  as  extreme  or  extravagant;  yet  it  is  soberly 
used;  for  I  can  think  of  no  other  that  applies  adequately 
to  the  miners'  condition,  and  I  have  read  few  descriptions 
of  any  state  of  acknowledged  slavery  that  does  not  on 
the  whole  seem  better  than  theirs. 

These  men  were  not  merely  enslaved,  in  a  way  I  shall 
now  proceed  to  explain,  but  they  were  systematically  de- 
spoiled and  robbed. 

In  practically  all  of  the  mines  the  methods  were  the 
same.  When  a  man  began  to  work  he  opened  an  account 
at  the  company  store.  You  may  assume  with  entire  con- 
fidence that  he  opened  this  account  because  if  he  failed  to 
do  so  he  ceased  to  work  in  the  mine.  This  store  was  owned 
(not  openly  but  through  a  subterfuge)  by  the  firm  or  com- 
pany that  operated  the  mine.  By  the  laws  of  the  State 
such  dual  ownership  was  strictly  forbidden,  but  with  the 
assistance  of  the  convenient  subterfuge  was  almost  uni- 
versal. Some  years  before  there  had  been  a  violent  revolt 
against  conditions  in  the  anthracite  region,  and  at  that 
time  men  that  greatly  profited  by  this  subterfuge  had 
uttered  splendid  sentiments  in  favor  of  law  and  order. 
I  could  not  learn  that  their  attention  had  ever  been  offi- 
cially called  to  this  inconsistency.  The  company  store  had 
for  sale  everything  the  miner  needed  in  his  household  and 
also  everything  he  needed  in  his  work.  These  things  were 
supplied  to  him  in  advance  or  on  credit  and  their  cost  was 
subtracted  at  the  end  of  the  month  from  his  recorded 
earnings. 

Payment  for  mining  was  on  the  basis  of  the  carload, 
so  much  for  every  mine  car  of  coal  brought  to  the  surface 
and  delivered  at  the  breaker,  which  is  a  kind  of  coal 
elevator  at  the  mouth  of  the  mine.     The  miners  hired  their 

6 


Two  Cents  and  a  Bucket  of  Coal 

own  laborers,  and  furnished  their  own  tools,  gunpowder, 
oil,  and  accessories — all  purchased  at  the  company 
stores.  The  mine  owners  furnished  only  the  mine,  the 
breaker,  and  the  cars  that  brought  the  coal  to  the 
surface. 

This  system  opened  the  door  to  many  abuses.  Mixed 
with  the  coal  in  the  original  strata  was  a  small  quantity 
of  slate.  Necessarily,  this  was  carried  to  the  surface  with 
the  coal,  and  for  the  slate  a  purely  arbitrary  and  un- 
reasonable deduction  was  made,  apparently  in  a  spirit  of 
cynical  disregard  of  justice.  On  their  way  to  the  breaker 
the  cars  passed  swiftly  up  an  inclined  plane,  and  on  a 
bridge  over  this  stood  a  functionary  called  the  docking 
boss,  who  estimated  and  recorded  the  amount  of  slate 
in  each  car  as  it  passed.  The  whole  performance  was 
admittedly  a  farce.  As  the  cars  went  hurtling  along,  the 
docking  boss  could  no  more  than  glance  at  each  of  them 
and  in  no  way  could  the  surface  of  the  load  be  any  trust- 
worthy indicator  of  the  amount  of  slate  it  contained. 
Moreover,  the  man  was  in  the  employ  of  the  mine 
owners;  his  judgment  was  necessarily  ex  parte;  and  from 
it  there  was  no  appeal.  On  his  instantaneous  guess  the 
deductions  were  from  fifteen  to  forty-five  per  cent.  A 
car  that  contained  no  slate  might  be  docked  nearly  one- 
half  and  probably  no  car  ever  contained  as  much  slate 
as  was  charged  against  it. 

As  there  was  no  mine  inspection  worth  the  name,  the 
miners  had  likewise  no  redress  against  another  grievance 
that  arose  from  the  arbitrary  size  of  the  car.  This  the 
mine  owners  regulated  to  suit  themselves,  and  while  each 
car  was  supposed  to  contain  about  the  same  amount  of 
coal  there  were  variations,  and  these  all  in  favor  of  the 
mine  owner.     At  some  mines  a  rule  had  been  made  that, 

7 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

to  be  recorded  with  full  credit,  a  car  must  be  heaped 
with  coal  until  the  coal  would  touch  and  ring  a  bell  sus- 
pended over  the  tracks.  No  agreements  regulated  the 
height  of  this  bell.  The  charge  repeatedly  made  that  a 
mine  boss  or  superintendent,  ambitious  for  large  showings, 
would  surreptitiously  increase  the  height  of  the  bell  seemed 
improbable,  and  yet  I  met  with  it  so  often  from  many 
sources  and  so  well  supported  that  I  was  obliged  to  think 
it  not  without  foundation.  Nothing  existed  to  prevent 
any  such  species  of  theft,  and  it  would  in  fact  be  quite 
in  accord  with  other  practices  toward  the  miner.  For 
example,  I  found  mines  where  the  size  of  the  car  had  un- 
doubtedly been  increased  without  any  increase  of  payment 
to  the  miner,  and  it  seemed  quite  true  that  in  some 
instances  when  the  coal  on  any  car  failed  to  ring  the  bell 
that  carload  had  been  confiscated  to  the  mine  and  the 
miner  had  received  little  for  it. 

Why,  then,  did  the  miners  remain  at  work  when  they 
were  so  unfairly  treated?  That  was  the  first  question  that 
arose  when  I  had  established  these  facts.  In  the  big, 
free,  bustling  country  of  which  they  were  citizens  were 
many  other  employments  besides  mining.  Why  did  they 
not  turn  to  something  else?  Or  why  did  they  stay  a 
day  in  a  region  so  forlorn  and  unhappy?  There  was 
the  Great  West,  for  instance,  that  traditionally  needed  men 
to  develop  it  and  offered  so  many  golden  chances.  Why 
did  they  not  move  thither? 

I  turned  this  question  to  and  fro  for  some  time  before  I 
found  the  answer.  Occasionally  one  of  the  younger  or 
more  fortunate  men  would  indeed  make  his  escape,  but 
the  others  could  not  go  or  did  not  go  because  they  were 
bound  hand  and  foot  to  the  company  store — by  debt. 

They  were  in  debt;  they  always  had  been  in  debt;  they 

8 


Two  Cents  and  a  Bucket  of  Coal 

always  would  be  in  debt;  it  was  part  of  the  system  to 
keep  them  in  debt. 

One  reason  why  they  were  in  debt  at  some  of  the  mines 
was  because  they  were  overcharged  for  everything  they 
bought.  For  a  $3  keg  of  powder  they  paid  $4,  for  a  can 
of  oil  worth  sixty  cents'  they  paid  $1,  for  a  rubber  coat 
worth  $4  they  paid  $6,  for  a  sack  of  flour  worth  $2.25 
they  paid  $2.50. 

They  must  buy  at  the  company  store  or  they  could  not 
work  in  the  mines,  and  for  everything  they  bought  at 
the  company  store  they  were  scandalously  overcharged. 

Most  of  them  lived  in  houses  (so  to  call  them)  owned 
by  the  company,  and  were  behind  in  their  rent.  These 
houses  were  of  wood,  sometimes  constructed  by  nailing 
upright  boards  against  a  flimsy  frame,  much  as  a  western 
farmer  might  build  his  woodshed.  They  were  often  un- 
painted,  usually  ramshackle,  and  always  repulsive  to  look 
at.  At  some  mines  they  stood  in  long  dreary  rows,  form- 
ing one  of  the  forlornest  spectacles  I  can  remember.  All 
the  anthracite  region  had  been  made  by  the  hand  of  man 
a  place  repulsive,  but  surely  the  sorriest  spots  in  it  were 
dwellings  maintained  by  the  mining  companies;  and  for 
shelter  in  one  of  these  wretched  sheds  the  rent  exacted 
seemed  to  be  calculated  on  the  idea  of  recovering  in  a  year 
the  entire  cost  of  construction. 

You  would  naturally  assume  offhand  that  persons  living 
in  these  houses  and  submitting  to  so  many  extortions  were 
of  low  intelligence  and  belonged  to  what  we  are  pleased 
to  call  the  riffraff  of  Europe.  I  was  astonished  to  find 
that  they  were  Americans  of  long  American  lineage,  in- 
telligent, and,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  intensely  patriotic. 
Practically  all  of  them  had  grown  up  in  the  mines.  Their 
fathers  had  been  miners;  they  themselves  had  begun  life 

9 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

as  slate-pickers  or  mule-drivers  in  the  drifts,  and  by  years 
of  practice  had  mastered  a  difficult  and  dangerous  trade. 
I  do  not  know,  indeed,  why  anyone  should  think  a  miner 
can  be  an  unintelligent  person;  to  do  the  work  performed 
by  these  men  in  the  anthracite  region  requires  a  high 
degree  of  skill  and  much  knowledge;  they  are  not  merely 
laborers  but  experts  and  engineers.  Many  miners  had 
married  the  daughters  of  other  miners;  their  children  were 
already  in  the  mines;  and  on  father  and  child  was  the 
mark  that  one  comes  quickly  to  recognize  as  the  stamp 
of  the  mines. 

These  children  were  in  themselves  an  interesting  study. 
The  law  of  the  State  strictly  forbade  their  employment 
in  or  about  the  mines ;  it  was  a  law  everywhere  and  openly 
violated.  Everybody  knew  the  substance  of  the  law;  every- 
body knew  it  was  a  dead  letter.  I  have  seen  a  father 
going  into  a  mine  with  three  children  all  under  the  legal 
age  limit  and  all  at  work  for  wages.  Parents  did  not 
deliberately  choose  to  ruin  thus  the  lives  of  their  children; 
they  have  spoken  to  me  of  it  with  tears;  but  under  the 
existing  conditions  the  thing  was  inevitable.  The  chil- 
dren's wages  were  necessary  for  the  support  of  the  family, 
and  the  struggle  for  life  was  always  grim  and  terrible. 
A  father,  men  said,  could  not  let  his  children  starve. 
After  a  time  I  was  driven  to  question  whether  in  some 
instances,  at  least,  starvation  or  some  less  painful  form 
of  death  would  not  have  been  preferable  to  the  slow,  long 
drawn  out  murder  of  body,  mind,  and  soul  that  was  accom- 
plished upon  the  child  that  labored  in  the  mines.  The 
records  of  their  employment  scored  upon  them  were  both 
obvious  and  shocking.  I  never  saw  one  that  was  not  pallid, 
gaunt,  prematurely  old,  overwrought,  underfed,  and  an 
easy  prey  to  any  bacterial  disease,  but  particularly  to  tuber- 

10 


Two  Cents  and  a  Bucket  of  Coal 

culosis.  I  found  boys  passing  into  man's  estate  that  had 
never  had  any  childhood  they  could  recollect.  They  had 
never  played  nor  had  any  recreation  nor  drawn  from  life 
any  conception  except  that  of  eternally  facing  the  one 
battle  for  daily  food  amid  surroundings  that  seemed  cal- 
culated to  crush  out  every  sweet  and  worthy  thought. 
Against  the  system  that  produced  these  conditions  it 
seemed  to  me  that  thousands  of  ruined  lives  daily  pro- 
tested. 

Near  one  of  the  mines  a  mine  owner  had  built  his  hand- 
some residence  in  a  vast  and  beautiful  estate.  He  was 
reputed,  on  just  grounds,  I  believe,  to  be  the  fairest  and 
most  charitable  employer  in  the  region;  he  had  made  a 
sincere  but  futile  effort  to  withstand  the  methods  that  in- 
creasingly bound  chains  upon  the  worker,  he  had  no  sym- 
pathy with  the  new  coalition;  and  at  the  time  I  visited  his 
colliery  he  had  determined  to  resist  the  combination  or 
retire  from  the  business.  He  was  a  type  of  the  old  style 
employer  that  had  individual  and  kindly  relations  with 
his  men,  and  yet  there  were  features  about  even  his  situa- 
tion that  provoked  grave  questions. 

On  the  road  below  his  beautiful  estate  the  miners  trooped 
to  and  from  the  mines,  and  I  cannot  pretend  that  the 
contrast  they  suggested  was  reassuring  to  one  that  knew 
the  kind  of  houses  they  left  in  the  morning  and  would 
return  to  at  night.  This  mine  owner  had  a  son  twelve  or 
thirteen  years  old  for  whom  as  a  plaything  he  had  built 
a  miniature  railroad  that  ran  two  or  three  miles  about 
the  hills.  With  real  locomotives,  cars,  tracks,  and  switches 
the  fortunate  boy  had  great  amusement  running  his  trains 
from  miniature  station  to  station.  The  locomotive  was  so 
large  that  he  could  ride  in  the  cab  and  the  cars  would  ac- 
commodate several  of  his  friends.    At  two  places  the  track 

11 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

crossed  the  highway  and  the  boy  would  blow  the  whistle 
of  his  locomotive  as  he  approached  a  crossing.  It  was 
great  fun.  Sometimes  his  train  would  come  along  as  the 
mine  boys  were  going  to  work  or  returning  home  and 
they  would  stand  and  watch  the  little  cars  fly  past, 
the  bell  ringing,  and  the  youthful  engineer  seated  in  his 
cab,  happy  and  smiling.  Then  they  would  go  on,  swinging 
their  dinner  pails. 

The  miners'  houses  were  always  very  poor  and  bare, 
inside  as  well  as  outside,  and  I  think  I  found  in  the  mel- 
ancholy region  nothing  more  pathetic  than  the  efforts  of 
the  overburdened  housewives  to  preserve  in  the  midst  of 
such  surroundings  the  decency,  cleanliness,  and  good  taste 
characteristic  of  their  race.  The  walls  had  little  treasured 
ornaments  and  framed  prints  cut  from  the  illustrated 
papers;  there  was  often  a  vase  with  wild  flowers  from 
the  hills,  and  to  my  amazement  I  found  some  of  the  sad- 
eyed  housewives  managed  to  grow  a  trifle  of  a  garden  by 
the  door.  But  over  everything  was  a  terrible  blight  of 
poverty  and  insufficiency.  The  miners'  families  went  badly 
clothed  and  plainly  some  of  them  did  not  have  enough  to 
eat.  They  seemed  to  be  a  grave,  self-respecting,  and 
orderly  people ;  when  the  father  and  the  boys  returned  from 
the  day's  work  in  the  mines  they  plunged  at  once  into  the 
washtubs  of  water  the  wife  and  mother  kept  standing  for 
them,  and  with  soap  and  brushes  scrubbed  away  all  the 
grime  of  the  mines.  Then  they  dressed  in  clean,  if  patched, 
clothes  and  had  supper.  Afterwards  there  was  nothing  to 
do  except  to  smoke  and  to  go  to  bed.  The  rows  of  barracks 
on  the  bleak  hillside  afforded  no  vestige  of  human  amuse- 
ment. I  was  rather  nonplussed  to  find  that  practically 
none  of  them  drank  intoxicating  liquor  to  excess,  and  many 
drank  it  not  at  all,  but  it  was   explained  to  me  that  a 

12 


Two  Cents  and  a  Bucket  of  Coal 

miner's  work  is  such  he  cannot  wisely  use  alcoholic  stimu- 
lants. Nevertheless,  I  am  quite  sure  that  in  the  like  con- 
ditions I  should  be  drunken  every  night  if  in  any  way  I 
could  come  by  liquor. 

This  was  the  situation  at  the  mines  when  (by  some  vio- 
lence of  speech)  work  was  called  "  good."  I  mean  when 
on  all  the  days  of  the  week  the  miners  were  allowed  to 
mine  coal,  or  to  work  in  the  mines  preparing  (without 
compensation)  to  mine  coal,  and  when  the  deductions  were 
not  unusually  large.  They  were  very  anxious  to  work  all 
the  time  that  they  might  earn  money  to  live  on,  and  when- 
ever work  was  interrupted,  as  by  explosions  in  the  mines 
(which  were  frequent  and  usually  fatal),  by  floodings, 
or  by  the  caprice  of  the  mine  owners,  they  thought  them- 
selves unfortunate.  At  the  end  of  each  month  each  miner 
received  a  due-bill  or  ticket  showing  his  account  with  his 
kind,  indulgent  employer.  On  this  ticket  was  recorded  first 
all  the  coal  he  had  mined  in  the  month — so  many  cars. 
Then  there  was  noted  the  deductions  for  slate  or  for  under- 
weight, being  the  amounts  reported  by  the  docking  boss 
as  before  described.  Next  were  subtracted  the  wages  of 
the  laborers  employed  by  the  miner,  for  while  these  laborers 
received  their  wages  at  first  hand  from  the  company  they 
were  in  reality  paid  by  the  miners.  Then  were  deducted 
the  supplies  the  miner  had  drawn  in  the  month;  and  from 
all  this  was  struck  a  balance  of  the  amount  due  to  him. 

This  amount  the  company  store  usually  took  to  apply 
on  the  back  account. 

As  a  result  the  average  miner  seldom  saw  any  actual 
money  he  could  call  his  own,  and  on  every  side  the  com- 
pany store  was  the  horizon  of  his  material  life. 

Very  often  when  all  the  deductions  had  been  made  the 
remainder,  even  for  the  taking  of  the  company  store,  was 

13 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

pitifully  small.  I  collected  about  two  hundred  due- 
bills^  each  representing  the  proceeds  of  a  miner's  work 
for  one  month  in  the  times  that  were  called  good.  They 
showed  balances  of  from  $15  to  $45.  The  average  was 
$36.  One  man  that  had  toiled  all  the  month  had  a  balance 
due  to  him  of  $16  and  another  of  $17-50.  These  men 
had  spent  most  of  the  month  in  preparing  their  drifts 
to  take  out  coal,  a  work  for  which  they  received  nothing. 
This  might  be  tolerable  if  their  earnings  when  they  began 
to  deliver  coal  were  sufficient  to  afford  compensation  for 
the  unprofitable  month,  but  they  never  were.  The  man 
that  earned  $16  for  the  month  of  hard  and  dangerous  toil 
had  four  children,  all  girls,  and  therefore  unproductive 
of  wages;  for  even  the  barbarism  of  the  anthracite  region 
did  not  go  so  far  as  to  compel  little  girls  to  mine  coal. 
How  this  family  lived  I  do  not  know,  but  certainly  the 
fare  in  that  household  was  far  less  than  any  child  of  earth 
should  have. 

Upon  conditions  like  these  there  had  now  fallen  the 
order  that  no  more  than  two  days'  work  should  be  done  in 
any  week,  a  policy  deemed  necessary  to  keep  down  the 
supply  and  to  keep  up  the  price.  To  the  people  that 
for  years  had  lived  thus  perilously  upon  the  edge  of  the 
abyss  the  order  seemed  an  intolerable  hardship.  They 
had  hands  and  the  will  to  work,  they  needed  the  work 
that  they  might  live,  the  work  that  they  wanted  to 
do  stared  them  in  the  face,  and  a  wholly  arbitrary  power, 
unconnected  in  any  way  with  normal  conditions,  refused 
them  the  work  they  begged. 

All  these  facts  were  clear  to  any  observation;  they  were 
physical  and  palpable  results  of  certain  causes.  But  one 
phase  of  the  matter  not  so  easily  discerned  was  long  a 
puzzle  to  me.     The  price  of  coal  in  New  York  had  been 

14 


Two  Cents  and  a  Bucket  of  Coal 

$5  and  was  now  $5.50  a  ton.  Evidently  this  was  wholly 
disproportionate  to  the  cost  of  producing  the  coal.  Figures 
based  upon  the  expense  of  mine  operation,  including  every- 
thing except  interest  and  taxes,  showed  that  the  cost  of  a 
ton  of  coal  loaded  upon  a  car  at  the  mine  sidetrack  was 
about  $1.  Over  night  the  car  was  hauled  to  New  York 
where  its  contents  became  worth  $5  a  ton.  This  increase, 
in  turn,  bore  no  proportion  to  the  actual  cost  of  the  service 
of  transporting  the  coal  and  showed  an  abnormal  profit, 
easy  to  understand,  when  one  remembered  that  the  railroad 
company  that  transported  the  coal  usually  owned  it  and 
was  a  great  or  preponderating  influence  in  fixing  the  price 
of  all  coal.     So  far  all  was  plain. 

But  what  became  of  all  these  various  and  great  profits? 
The  company  store  must  have  paid  very  handsomely,  the 
abuse  of  dockage  must  have  yielded  large  returns,  the 
price  at  which  the  coal  was  sold  was  an  enormous  advance 
upon  the  mining  cost.  Most  of  this  money  flowed  into  one 
channel ;  that  is  to  say,  into  the  hands  of  the  owners  *  of 
the  mines,  who  were  in  turn  the  owners  of  the  railroads. 
But  no  one  heard  that  any  extraordinary  dividends  or 
profits  were  paid  to  these  owners;  according  to  the  records 
and  reports  the  dividend  rates  paid  by  all  these  railroads 
were  not  to  be  regarded  as  excessive,  being  little  above  the 
current  market  rates  for  money.  What,  then,  became  of 
all  these  profits  ? 

This  remained  a  mystery  until  I  looked  into  the  lists 
of  securities  that  these  railroads  had  issued;  then  the  trail 
of  the  missing  profits  was  clearly  revealed.  All  of  these 
railroads  had  in  the  current  phrase  "  capitalized  their  earn- 

*  In  the  case  of  mines  not  in  one  way  or  another  owned  by  the 
railroads  the  exorbitant  freight  rates  absorbed  the  greater  part 
of  the  profit. 

15 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

ing  power."  That  is  to  say,  they  had  issued  securities 
up  to  the  limit  of  the  money  that  could  be  obtained  from 
the  public  on  one  hand  and  from  the  miners  on  the  other; 
and  the  docking  boss,  the  company  store,  the  wretched 
houses,  the  overcharges,  the  pallid-faced  children,  and  the 
violated  laws  merely  represented  so  much  watered  stock 
and  so  many  bonds.  Finally,  it  was  to  meet  the  require- 
ments of  a  fresh  issue  of  securities  that  the  combination 
of  the  railroads  had  been  formed,  the  price  of  coal  in- 
creased, the  days  of  labor  at  the  mines  diminished,  and 
here  was  the  heart  and  real  secret  of  the  murmurs  of  the 
East  Side  and  the  added  two  cents  in  the  price  of  the 
bucket  of  coal. 

Let  us  suppose  that  the  normal  profit  of  mining  coal 
had  paid  in  the  case  of  one  of  these  railroads  7  per  cent, 
on  a  capitalization  of  $50,000,000.  Evidently  by  slightly 
oppressing  the  miner  or  slightly  increasing  the  selling  cost 
of  coal  this  road  could  pay  the  same  rate  upon  $60,000,000. 
There  was  issued  accordingly  $10,000,000  of  additional 
stock  in  the  shape  of  a  stock  dividend  to  the  owners.  The 
next  year  a  little  increase  of  pressure  at  both  ends  would 
justify  an  issue  of  $20,000,000  of  bonds,  in  the  main 
similarly  disposed  of.  This  was  the  process;  by  these 
means  (regarded  in  all  financial  circles  as  perfectly  legiti- 
mate) the  enormous  profits  were  absorbed  without  increas- 
ing the  dividends  or  attracting  attention,  and  until  the  limit 
of  endurance  of  the  miners  or  of  the  public  should  be 
reached  there  seemed  to  be  no  reason  why  the  process  should 
not  continue. 

One  of  these  railroads,  the  Philadelphia  &  Reading,  was 
among  the  most  heavily  capitalized  railroads  in  the  world, 
so  that  conservative  financiers  were  often  aghast  when 
they    contemplated    the   load    it   was    carrying.      Most    of 

15 


Two  Cents  and  a  Bucket  of  Coal 

its  securities  represented  capitalized  earning  power,  which, 
to  speak  quite  plainly,  is  equivalent  to  saying  that  they 
represented  extortions  practiced  upon  the  miner  on  one  side 
and  the  coal  consumer  on  the  other.  So  great,  in  fact, 
had  become  the  burden  of  common,  preferred  and  second 
preferred  stock,  first  and  second  mortgage,  debentures, 
income,  general  and  consolidated  bonds,  that  even  with 
ample  assistance  from  the  company  store  and  the  docking 
boss,  great  difficulty  was  sometimes  experienced  in  meeting 
all  of  the  company's  obligations,  and  it  was  nec- 
essary to  omit  the  paying  of  sacred  dividends.  In  spite 
of  these  stupendous  totals  of  securities,  still  more  had 
recently  been  issued,  and  it  was  the  gentlemen  in  charge 
of  the  Philadelphia  &  Reading  that  had  really  brought 
about  the  combination,  the  increase  in  the  price  of  coal, 
and  the  decrease  of  the  days  of  mining,  that  revenue  might 
be  provided  to  meet  the  charges  on  these  securities. 

The  essence  of  the  situation  then  was  this:  In  New 
York  and  other  cities  great  populations  were  suffering  for 
lack  of  coal.  In  the  mountains  was  a  plenty  of  coal.  Great 
numbers  of  miners  were  suffering  from  lack  of  work.  At 
their  hands  was  a  plenty  of  work  to  be  done.  Between 
these  two  great  needs  and  two  great  natural  supplies  stood 
a  group  of  irresponsible  persons  that  for  their  own  profit 
made  coal  dear  in  New  York  and  work  scarce  in  Penn- 
sylvania. 

For  this  condition  I  could  find  then  no  defense,  excuse, 
nor  even  palliation,  and  I  have  been  able  to  find  none  since. 
The  only  advantage  that  resulted  from  it  was  that  a  small 
group  of  men,  six  or  seven,  perhaps,  was  enabled  to  live 
in  the  greater  luxury.  From  this  fact  society  at  large 
could  not  be  conceived  to  derive  the  slightest  benefit.  The 
concern  of  society  was  that  people  should  have  coal  and  men 

17 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

should  have  work.  With  this  fundamental  concern  these 
six  or  seven  men  were  abnormally  interfering  and  there 
could  be  no  escape  from  the  conclusion  that  the  system  of 
society  that  allowed  interference  in  matters  so  vital  to  the 
general  welfare  had  in  it  a  fatal  fault. 

Two  other  facts  connected  with  this  episode  seemed  to 
me  significant,  and  may  seem  so  to  you.  The  clamor  of 
the  newspapers  and  the  general  disgust  of  the  public  had 
such  an  effect  that  this  particular  combination  was  after  a 
few  months  dissolved,  one  of  its  projectors  publicly  declar- 
ing that  he  did  not  care  to  be  called  a  thief  and  an  op- 
pressor. But — and  here  is  the  great  point — the  price  of 
coal  was  not  reduced,  it  has  since  been  still  further  in- 
creased, and  another  combination  under  another  name  took 
the  place  and  performed  all  the  functions  of  the  first. 

The  other  fact  is  that  eight  miners  that  had  been  de- 
tected (in  spite  of  many  precautions)  in  giving  me  in- 
formation about  conditions  in  the  mines  were  dismissed 
from  their  employment  and  at  once  blacklisted  at  every 
mine  in  the  three  anthracite  regions.  It  appeared,  there- 
fore, that  the  men  in  control  of  the  country's  coal  supply 
had  also  (in  effect)  over  their  employees  the  power  of 
life  and  death;  for  assuredly  you  deny  to  a  man  the  right 
to  live  when  you  deny  to  him  the  right  to  the  labor  by 
which  he  sustains  life.  I  was,  therefore,  irresistibly  re- 
minded of  medieval  feudalism,  from  which  these  conditions 
seemed  in  no  way  different.  The  coal  mine  owners  repro- 
duced exactly  the  barons  of  the  Rhine  that  levied  for  their 
ease  and  luxury  arbitrary  tribute  upon  the  highway,  and 
the  miners  were  their  serfs;  nor  was  it  possible  for  me  to 
see  how  any  person  that  rejoiced  in  the  fall  of  medieval 
feudalism  could  fail  to  protest  against  the  feudalism  of  the 
modern  system  of  industry. 

18 


CHAPTER   II 

THE    STORY    OF    THE    BUCKO    MATE 

Before  the  introduction  of  steam  pilot  boats  the  pilots 
of  New  York  cruised  out  of  the  port  in  swift,  handsome 
schooners  that  I  suppose  were  the  best  vessels  of  their 
class  ever  sent  to  sea.  Whereas  the  steam  pilot  boat  now 
stands  off  the  bar  at  the  harbor-mouth,  the  sailing  pilot 
boat  of  the  old  days  stretched  far  down  to  eastward,  some- 
times five  hundred  miles.  There  was  keen  competition 
among  the  twenty-odd  boats  of  the  two  fleets,  New  York 
and  New  Jersey;  racing  occurred  almost  daily,  and  the 
life,  though  not  without  danger,  had  a  certain  charm. 

My  work  as  reporter  had  brought  me  to  know  many 
pilots  (a  class  whose  worth,  skill,  and  virtues  have  never 
been  adequately  celebrated),  and  for  pleasure  I  sometimes 
went  on  cruises  with  them.  The  working  complement  of 
a  pilot-boat,  I  may  explain,  consisted  of  the  boat-keeper 
(a  kind  of  captain),  four  or  five  sailormen,  and  the  cook. 
Usually  four  pilots  went  out;  the  boat  would  remain  at 
sea  until  these  had  been  placed  on  board  incoming  vessels, 
when  the  boat-keeper  would  bring  the  boat  back  to  port. 
In  the  summer  of  1890  I  made  a  cruise  on  the  E.  F. 
Williams,  pilot-boat  No.  14,  a  craft  of  which  the  owners 
were  justly  proud,  and  on  which  I  had  frequently  voyaged. 
When  I  joined  her  at  the  Tompkinsville  anchorage  I  found 
on  board  a   new  member   of  the   crew.      I   think   I   have 

19 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

never  seen  before  the  mast  a  more  unnautical  figure.  He 
was  about  twenty-two,  tall,  gaunt,  and  wiry,  and  his  dress, 
gait,  language,  and  movements  were  all  eloquent  of  rusticity, 
and,  indeed,  of  the  plow.  What  made  his  present  employ- 
ment the  stranger  was  that  he  was  in  no  condition  to  do 
a  seaman's  work,  even  if  he  had  known  how.  He  carried 
his  left  arm  in  a  sling,  walked  with  a  limp,  and  looked 
pale  and  sickly.  One  eye  was  rather  shockingly  dis- 
colored as  if  from  a  recent  blow,  and  one  cheek  showed 
a  long,  broad  scar,  only  partly  healed.  While  we  were 
getting  under  way  he  stood  about  rather  helplessly,  and 
I  surmised  that  his  contribution  to  the  vessel's  handling 
would  be  small. 

The  presence  of  this  singular  person  gave  me  some 
curiosity,  and  as  soon  as  he  recovered  sufficiently  to  stand 
a  watch  forward  (it  quickly  appearing  that  he  was  no 
helmsman  for  a  schooner)  I  made  a  point  of  sharing  his 
watch  and  talking  with  him.  His  name  was  James  Sum- 
mers. He  had  been  born  and  bred  in  the  mountains  of 
Kentucky,  where  his  way  of  life  had  varied  from  farmer's 
boy  to  teacher  of  a  rural  school.  His  parents  were  dead, 
and  about  six  months  before  he  joined  the  pilot-boat  an 
uncle  in  San  Francisco  had  sent  for  him,  previous  to  which 
he  had  never  been  outside  of  his  native  county.  On  the 
train  his  pocket  had  been  picked  of  his  wallet,  which  con- 
tained his  uncle's  directions  and  address.  In  San  Fran- 
cisco an  obliging  stranger  had  undertaken  to  guide  him  to 
his  uncle's  house,  which  I  deem  to  have  been  somewhere 
in  the  suburbs.  On  the  way  they  stopped  for  refreshment 
in  a  water-front  resort,  and  the  next  clear  remembrance 
the  young  man  had  was  of  lying  on  a  rolling  floor  while  a 
stout,  red-faced  man  was  trying  to  awaken  him  by  kicking 
him  in  the  ribs.     He  struggled  to  his  feet  to  find  that  he 

20 


The  Story  of  the  Bucko  Mate 

was  on  a  ship  about  fifteen  miles,  I  should  judge,  south- 
west of  the  Farallones.     He  had  been  shanghaied. 

He  gave  a  mighty  cry  when  this  fact  was  at  last  borne 
in  upon  his  groping  consciousness,  and  was  promptly 
knocked  down  by  the  red-faced  man,  who  proved  to  be 
the  vessel's  first  mate.  The  cook,  who  seems  to  have  been 
almost  the  only  tolerable  person  on  that  floating  hell,  came 
to  his  help  and  dragged  him  out  of  sight  to  explain  a 
situation  doubtless  familiar  enough  on  most  Cape  Homers. 
While  Summers  was  unconscious  from  drugged  liquor 
lie  had  been  signed  as  an  ordinary  seaman  on  the  Amer- 
ican ship  Willie  Schernhorst,  bound  from  San  Francisco 
to  New  York.  There  was  no  help  for  this  situation  but 
to  keep  perfectly  still,  obey  orders,  learn  his  work,  do 
it  faithfully,  and  he  would  be  all  right  and  probably  like 
the  job.  Thus  the  cook.  Subsequently  Summers  added 
to  this  outline  of  his  position  the  fact,  very  important  to 
this  narrative,  that  he  had  been  shipped  for  the  round  trip 
to  be  paid  off  on  the  vessel's  arrival  in  San  Francisco. 

He  was  a  simple  soul,  unimaginative,  unattached,  accus- 
tomed always  to  hard  work,  and  probably  the  horrors  of  his 
lot  did  not  at  first  appeal  to  him  so  much  as  they  might  have 
appealed  to  another.  At  least  it  appeared  that  he  had 
determined  to  make  the  best  of  the  situation,  and  apply 
himself  to  learn  his  duties;  the  extent  of  which  task  may 
be  gauged  from  the  fact  that  he  knew  not  the  bow  of  a 
ship  from  the  stern.  He  was  seasick  at  first,  and  was 
allowed  to  lie  in  a  dark  corner  of  the  fo'c's'le,  but  as  soon 
as  he  was  on  his  feet  he  found  himself  in  the  first  mate's 
watch  and  being  driven  with  blows  and  curses  to  pull  on 
ropes  whereof  the  names  and  uses  he  knew  nothing,  and 
to  go  about  the  ship  on  errands  that  he  always  bungled. 
There  was   another  landsman  on  board,  a   former  miner 

21 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

from  Colorado,  whose  plight  was  much  like  his  own,  and 
their  common  misfortune  drew  them  somewhat  together. 
The  rest  of  the  crew  were  mostly  experienced  sailors, 
though  as  Summers  presently  discovered,  all  were  new  in 
the  Cape  Horn  voyage.  Nearly  all  had  come  on  board  drunk, 
and  being  now  sober,  were  busily  lamenting  their  ill-luck 
in  leaving  San  Francisco. 

Summers  said  that  from  the  first  what  struck  him  as 
strange  was  the  senseless  brutality  with  which  the  crew 
was  treated.  No  effort,  however  willing  or  zealous,  seemed 
to  satisfy  the  mate.  Every  order  was  given  with  curses; 
many  with  curses  and  blows.  When  all  hands  were  pulling 
with  every  ounce  of  strength  upon  a  sheet  the  mate  would 
come  among  them,  striking  and  cursing.  At  the  least  sign 
of  resentment  the  incipient  rebel  was  singled  out  and  beaten, 
sometimes  until  he  had  to  be  carried  to  his  bunk.  The  mate 
seemed  to  have  a  particular  spite  against  all  the  old  sailors ; 
the  landsmen  usually  fared  better  at  his  hands.  But  one 
night,  when  they  had  been  out  three  weeks,  the  mate, 
with  an  oath,  struck  at  Summers,  and  the  Kentuckian  made 
an  angry  retort.  The  mate  leaped  backward,  knocked  a 
belaying  pin  from  the  rack  under  the  shrouds,  and  with 
the  same  motion  caught  it  and  hurled  it  so  dexterously  that 
it  caught  the  Kentuckian  on  the  side  of  the  head  and 
stretched  him  senseless.  When  he  came  to  he  found  him- 
self ironed  and  in  the  hold,  I  think.  He  did  not  know 
how  long  he  lay  there,  but  he  said  the  cook  came  to  him 
several  times  with  bread  and  water.  Finally,  an  old  shell- 
back sailor  came  and,  sitting  down  by  his  side,  told  him 
matters  that  he  called  "  sailorman's  sense."  They  were 
to  the  effect  that  he  had  no  chance  encept  to  submit  to 
everything,  keep  silence,  do  his  work,  and  try  to  avoid 
irritating  the  ship's  officers.     Not  long  afterward  the  mate 

22 


The  Story  of  the  Bucko  Mate 

came  down,  took  off  the  irons,  and  with  a  kick  told  him  to 
get  on  deck. 

They  weathered  the  Horn  in  the  Antarctic  summer,  a 
mercy  the  landsmen  did  not  understand,  and  as  soon  as 
they  stood  away  north  the  cruelty  redoubled.  Not  a  day 
passed  without  violence:  often  there  was  bloodshed.  Some- 
times the  captain  joined  in  the  savage  persecution,  but 
usually  the  mate  was  their  chief  oppressor.  He  would 
come  on  deck,  find  fault  with  the  way  a  rope  was  coiled 
or  a  sail  furled,  work  himself  into  a  passion,  and  always 
end  by  assaulting  someone,  either  with  his  fists  or  with 
a  belaying  pin.  In  the  latter  case  the  beaten  man  was 
usually  carried  off  insensible.  Summers  said  that  although 
none  of  them  had  much  spirit  left,  and  all  were  without 
weapons,  only  the  fact  that  the  officers  went  about  con- 
spicuously armed  to  the  teeth  prevented  an  uprising.  Each 
mate  had  two  great  revolvers  at  his  belt,  and  the  handle 
of  a  revolver  always  showed  from  the  captain's  pocket. 
The  brutality  was  so  incessant  and  fierce  that  the  strongest 
men  in  the  crew  were  wont  to  wince  whenever  the  mate 
approached.  Yet  it  was  almost  always  without  the  least 
apparent  provocation  that  they  were  beaten:  they  would 
have  been  glad  to  win  peace  if  they  had  known  how.  This 
continually  puzzled  Summers,  and  one  night  when  both 
were  far  forward  by  the  heel  of  the  bowsprit  and  out  of 
the  hearing  of  the  others,  he  asked  the  old  sailor  about 
it.     The  sailor  said: 

"  Aw,  it's  part  of  the  game.  It'll  get  worse  as  we  head 
up  for  the  Hook.  Mind  me  and  keep  out  of  the  way  if 
you  want  to  get  ashore  alive." 

Summers  asked  him  "What  game?"  but  got  no  satis- 
faction. The  shellback  only  said  that  this  was  "  a  bucko 
mate,"  and  he  had  "  heard  about  him  before." 

23 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

The  mate  usually  applied  to  the  crew  at  large  what  is 
admitted  to  be  the  most  degrading  name  in  the  language. 
One  day  he  hurled  it  at  the  Colorado  man.  It  is  not  a 
name  to  be  used  with  impunity  in  Colorado.  The  miner 
sprang  at  the  mate's  throat.  All  the  suppressed  hatred 
in  that  beaten  crew  boiled  up.  With  oaths  and  shouts  they 
ran  towards  their  oppressor.  He  whipped  out  of  the 
way  and  stood  defiant  with  a  revolver  in  each  hand. 
The  men  fell  back  a  little.  At  that  instant  the  cap- 
tain strode  from  the  companionway  and  surveyed  the 
scene. 

"Mutiny,  eh?"  he  said.  He  picked  up  a  belaying  pin 
and  struck  the  miner  a  blow  that,  as  Summers  said,  crushed 
the  man's  head  like  an  egg.  Then  he  whirled  around  with 
his  drawn  revolver  and  menaced  the  crew. 

"  The  first  one  of  you  that  lifts  a  hand  or  says  a  word 
gets  the  same  medicine,"  he  said.     "  You  don't  know  who 

you're  fooling  with.     Mr.  ,  drive  these  rats   forward 

and  shoot  the  first  one  that  starts  a  mutiny." 

Summers  said  that  all  he  knew  about  the  miner's  fate 
was  that  he  never  saw  him  again.  The  word  went  around 
the  ship  two  days  later  that  a  body  had  been  buried  in 
the  morning  watch,  and  a  man's  death  had  been  entered  in 
the  log  as  due  to  heart  disease. 

The  shellback's  prediction  was  verified.  As  the  ship 
went  north  the  brutality  increased.  Summers  said  there 
were  always  two  or  three  men  in  their  bunks  with  broken 
bones  or  insensible  from  beatings.  He  made  careful  note 
of  every  assault,  for  he  assumed  that  as  soon  as  the  ship 
reached  port  the  captain  and  mate  would  be  arrested  and 
he  would  be  a  witness  against  them,  if  he  managed  to 
preserve  his  life.  By  this  time  he  had  become  quite  friendly 
with  the  old  shellback,  and  one  fine  night  when  they  were 

24 


The  Story  of  the  Bucko  Mate 

on  their  place  of  wonted  resort,  the  bowsprit,  he  casually 
mentioned  this   view  of  the  matter. 

"  Arrested !  "  said  the  sailorman.  "  They  won't  never 
be  arrested." 

"  Why  not?  "  Summers  asked.     "  It's  crime,  isn't  it?  " 

"Why  not?  Well,  I'll  show  you  why  not.  Who's  goin' 
to  say  anything?  Any  of  this  gang?  Well,  I'll  bet  you 
she  won't  be  tied  up  to  the  dock  before  every  man  on 
board  will  be  scramblin'  to  get  ashore  and  never  come 
back.  I'm  goin'  out  the  hawse-hole  myself.  Naw,  there 
won't  be  nothin'  said,  and  don't  you  say  nothin'  yourself. 
S'pose  this  is  the  first  ship  that's  seen  these  things?  Who 
cares  for  a  drunken  sailor?  Nobody'd  believe  him  anyway. 
You'd  only  be  pinched  yourself  and  the  old  man  and  the 
bucko'd  go  free." 

Summers  said  that  in  the  final  tempest  of  violence  that 
broke  out  just  before  the  pilot  came  aboard  he  received  the 
hurts  from  which  he  was  still  suffering,  including  a  broken 
arm  and  a  blow  on  the  side  of  the  head  from  a  belaying 
pin.  The  cook  set  his  arm  that  night.  The  moment  the 
ship  was  secured  to  the  pier  all  the  officers  went  below, 
as  of  purpose.  The  crew  dropped  over  the  side  like  rats 
and  disappeared.  Summers  followed  the  shellback  down 
one  street  and  up  another,  having  no  idea  where  he  was 
going,  until  they  plumped  into  a  sailor's  boarding  house, 
which,  from  Summers's  description,  I  concluded  must  have 
been  in  the  upper  part  of  West  Street.  Here  they  lay 
for  several  days  until  Summers's  hurts  had  somewhat 
healed.  The  shellback  got  a  berth  on  a  coastwise  steamer. 
Before  they  parted  he  made  Summers  understand  what  he 
had  meant  by  the  phrase  "  part  of  the  game  "  that  he  had 
used  that  night  on  the  bowsprit. 

"  You  see,"  he  said,  "  that's  where  the  bucko  mate  comes 

25 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

in.  That's  his  job.  We  was  all  signed  for  the  round  trip, 
'Frisco  to  New  York  and  back,  wasn't  we?  And  we  was 
to  be  paid  off  in  'Frisco  when  we  got  back,  wasn't  we? 
Well,  if  we  all  desert  in  New  York  we  don't  get  no  money, 
does  we?  Well,  if  the  mate  makes  that  ship  a  hot  enough 
place  we'll  all  desert,  won't  we?  So  then  they'll  ship  a 
new  crew,  New  York  to  'Frisco  and  back  to  be  paid  off 
in  New  York,  won't  they?  An'  the  bucko  mate,  he'll 
make  it  hot  so  they'll  quit  at  'Frisco,  won't  they?  So 
the  owners  won't  never  pay  no  wages,  will  they?  Well, 
ain't  that  what  I  was  tellin'  you?  I  leave  it  to  you  if 
you'd  stayed  on  that  ship  another  four  months  for  ten 
times  the  wages.  You  bet  you  wouldn't,  and  if  you  had, 
they'd  'a'  stove  your  head  in.  That's  the  bucko  mate,  me 
boy.     I  heard  of  him  before  and  now  I  know  him." 

Before  they  parted  the  shellback  introduced  Summers  to 
some  cronies,  including  the  boarding-house  keeper,  who 
seems  to  have  been  of  a  stamp  other  than  traditional.  There 
was  much  conferring  among  them,  the  purport  of  which 
he  did  not  understand,  but  after  some  delay  and  the  coming 
and  going  of  messengers  Summers  was  taken  by  night  to 
Tompkinsville,  and  found  himself  dropped  on  board  the 
pilot  boat.  He  said  he  suspected  that  his  story  was  not 
unknown  to  the  kind-hearted  pilots,  but  for  certain  reasons 
he  deemed  wisdom  to  lie  in  asking  no  questions. 

To  me  the  story  seemed  on  its  face  a  bit  of  extravagant 
fiction.  From  time  to  time  we  had  heard  stories  of  cruelty 
on  Cape  Homers,  and  from  the  cloudy  memories  of  the 
hurrying  life  a  reporter  necessarily  leads  in  New  York,  I 
recalled  some  threads  of  cases  in  the  police  courts  not 
unlike  this.  But  that  there  should  be  any  deliberate  plan 
to  avoid  the  paying  of  wages  by  making  men  desert  seemed 
to  my  mind  clearly  impossible.     Shipowners  were  not  so 

26 


The  Story  of  the  Bucko  Mate 

constituted.  Yet  to  believe  that  a  man  like  Summers  could 
have  invented  this  tale  was  even  more  difficult,  and  I  con- 
cluded that  he  merely  had  been  reading  red-hued  literature. 

It  happened  that  this  cruise  of  the  Williams  lasted  un- 
usually long.  We  had  met  with  no  steamers,  and  my  leave 
of  absence  was  drawing  to  a  close.  On  Georges  Shoals 
one  day  I  transferred  to  another  boat  that  had  been  more 
fortunate,  and  was  bound  home  in  charge  of  the  boat- 
keeper.  This  boat-keeper  and  I  became  close  friends,  and 
I  related  to  him  Summers's  story.  It  happened  that  one  of 
the  pilots  belonging  to  this  boat  had  brought  in  the  Schern- 
horst.  Pilots  as  a  rule  are  the  most  close-mouthed  of 
men,  particularly  about  their  work  and  what  they  observe 
while  doing  their  work.  But  what  this  pilot  had  seen  and 
heard  on  the  Schernhorst  seemed  to  have  moved  him  out 
of  his  reticence,  and  he  had  confided  to  the  boat-keeper 
facts  that  confirmed  much  of  Summers's  story.  The  boat- 
keeper  also  told  me  that  the  bucko  mate  was  a  perfectly 
well  recognized  maritime  character,  and  his  function  was 
exactly  as  it  had  been  described  to  Summers  by  the  shell- 
back. 

"  The  whole  thing  is  a  trade,"  said  the  boat-keeper, 
philosophically.  "  First,  there  is  a  trade  in  getting  sailors 
drunk  and  shipping  them  on  board  a  Cape  Horner.  No 
man  sober  and  not  crazy  would  set  foot  on  those  ships. 
Then  there  is  the  bucko  mate's  trade  of  making  them  desert. 
They  have  to  pay  the  crimps  for  getting  them  aboard — 
$5  a  head.  That's  all.  It  takes  about  thirty  men  to  handle 
one  of  those  clippers.  Wages  $30  a  month.  From  New 
York  to  'Frisco  and  back  is  anyway  eight  months.  That's 
$240  a  man.  Now  if  they  can  get  men  for  $10  a  head, 
$5  here  and  $5  in  'Frisco,  they  think  it's  good  business; 
they  save  money." 

27 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

At  once  upon  my  return  to  New  York  I  was  sent  out 
of  the  country  on  a  mission  that  absorbed  all  my  attention 
for  several  months,  and  it  was  long  afterward  that  I  heard 
of  the  sequel  of  the  voyage  of  the  Schernhorst.  It  ap- 
peared that  not  all  of  the  sailors  followed  the  shellback's 
advice  and  example;  some  were  unwilling  to  submit  in 
silence  to  assault  and  battery.  Three  of  them  appeared 
in  the  Tombs  police  court  and  swore  out  warrants  for  the 
arrest  of  the  captain  and  mate.  I  judge  that  the  proceed- 
ings must  have  been  of  an  edifying  nature.  The  reporter 
that  described  them  for  the  Herald's  news  columns  told  me 
that  the  butchers  of  the  Schernhorst  appeared  before  the 
magistrate  freshly  shaved,  immaculately  dressed,  and  wear- 
ing an  air  of  innocent  respectability.  They  were  defended 
by  one  of  the  best  known  law  firms  in  New  York,  reputed 
to  command  very  high  fees,  a  circumstance  that  awakened 
some  speculation  among  the  reporters.  When,  in  spite  of 
the  specious  plea  of  a  very  celebrated  lawyer,  the  magis- 
trate held  the  prisoners  for  trial  on  the  charges  of  assault 
and  cruelty  on  the  high  seas,  cash  bail  was  instantly  pro- 
duced for  them  and  they  walked  forth  free.  Similarly, 
when  two  weeks  later  they  were  indicted  by  the  grand 
jury  the  same  law  firm  was  on  hand  with  the  ready  bail. 

Soon  afterward  the  Schernhorst  sailed  with  the  same 
captain  and  mate,  and  doubtless  with  a  shanghaied  crew. 
About  six  months  later,  when  the  district  attorney  was  ready 
to  call  the  case,  he  discovered  that  the  witnesses  had  dis- 
appeared, whereupon  he  quashed  the  indictment. 

We  had  not  yet  heard  the  last  of  the  Schernhorst,  how- 
ever. On  her  arrival  at  San  Francisco  it  appeared  that 
for  a  day  or  two  there  was  a  recrudescence  of  her  bloody 
story.  The  feeling  must  have  been  rather  unusual  while 
it  lasted,  for  the  newspapers  were  moved  to  send  reporters 

28 


The  Story  of  the  Bucko  Mate 

to  interview  the  principal  owner.  This  gentleman,  quite 
famous  in  his  state,  eminent  for  his  charities  and  marked 
with  public  honors,  was  at  first  politely  incredulous  of  the 
story.  When  such  evidences  were  put  before*  him  as  did 
not  admit  of  doubt  he  observed  that  if  anything  of  the  kind 
happened  on  his  ships  it  was,  of  course,  without  his  knowl- 
edge and  against  his  wishes.  He  employed  only  careful 
and  humane  men  for  captains.  He  would  make  searching 
inquiry  and  deal  severely  with  the  captain  and  mate  if  he 
found  that  the  charges  were  in  any  degree  justified.  He 
would  have  no  cruelty  on  his  ships,  and  he  wished  the  public 
to  know  that  he  would  not. 

With  this  generous  expression  the  story  came  to  an  end. 
The  charitable  owner  must  have  forgotten  about  the  in- 
quiry or  have  been  singularly  obtuse  to  testimony.  The 
captain  and  the  mate  were  not  severely  dealt  with,  and 
both  continued  to  sail  the  seas,  and  no  doubt  to  command 
ships  in  which  no  wages  were  paid. 

But  the  indignation,  short-lived  and  feeble  as  it  was, 
did  not  pass  without  calling  forth  some  defense  of  the 
charitable  owner,  who,  it  appeared,  was  regarded  in  some 
quarters  as  a  man  unjustly  assailed.  It  was  urged 
that  you  cannot  sail  a  ship  without  some  cruelty,  you  know; 
and  that  the  sailors  were  all  drunken,  depraved  brutes 
that  could  not  possibly  be  managed  without  force,  because 
force  was  the  only  thing  they  respected.  And  as  for  the 
wage  matter,  if  the  sailors  would  violate  their  contract  of 
course  the  owner  was  not  to  blame  for  that.  And  above  all, 
there  was  Competition.  Competition  was  keen  in  the  carry- 
ing trade.  You  could  not  really  expect  an  owner  to  run 
his  ships  at  a  greater  expense  than  his  competitors.  The 
carrying  trade  was  no  philanthropy.  It  was  Business. 
And  with  these  remarks  the  whole  matter  dropped  from 

29 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

sight,  and  the  shiploads  of  bruised  and  wounded  men  con- 
tinued to  arrive  at  Atlantic  and  Pacific  ports  as  before. 

The  defense  of  the  shipowner  will  properly  seem  to  any 
just  man  but  wretched  subterfuge,  and  the  whole  business 
one  merely  for  loathing  and  horror.  And  yet,  under  the 
existing  system  of  society  it  was  not  without  its  valid 
justification.  The  bucko  mate  that  beat  men  with  belaying 
pins  was  not  really,  as  might  appear  at  first  glance,  an 
innate  ruffian,  dealing  in  cruelty  for  the  love  of  it.  He 
was  himself,  like  the  men  he  so  horribly  maltreated,  a  victim 
of  conditions.  I  may  say  that  long  after  I  heard  the  story 
of  Summers  I  met  some  of  these  butchers  and  noted  with 
surprise  that  off  the  seas  and  away  from  their  hateful  trade 
they  had  all  the  manners  and  traits  of  decent  men.  Some 
were  of  an  unusual  intelligence,  and  one,  strange  as  it 
may  seem,  had  a  strong  vein  of  sentiment  and  feeling. 
I  would  not  seek  to  soften  in  any  way  the  shame  of  their 
deeds,  yet  I  am  convinced  that  at  least  some  of  them  pur- 
sued with  aversion  their  barbarous  calling,  and  all  of  them 
were  cruel  because  under  existing  conditions  they  had  no 
choice. 

Let  us  take  good  measure  of  this,  because  it  is  the  best 
conceivable  example  of  the  utility  of  our  wise  and  in- 
variable practice  of  holding  individuals  responsible  for 
world-wide  conditions  that  no  individual  can  possibly  affect. 

Competition  was  very  keen  in  the  carrying  trade.  The 
expenses  were  great.  Much  of  the  success  of  the  enter- 
prise depended  upon  the  commanders  of  the  ships.  They 
were  the  agents  of  the  owners,  handled  the  owners'  money, 
returned  to  them  bills  of  expenses,  and  could  largely  con- 
tribute to  make  the  voyage  profitable  or  unprofitable.  Each 
of  them  held  his  place  at  the  dagger's  point  of  competition ; 
if   he  proved   unsatisfactory,   there   were   a   hundred   men 

30 


The  Story  of  the  Bucko  Mate 

ready  to  jump  into  his  place.  One  of  the  captains  dis- 
covered that  if  he  signed  a  sailor  for  the  round  trip,  and 
the  sailor  deserted  when  half  the  trip  was  done,  the  ship 
saved  that  sailor's  wages.  The  saving  was  apparent  on 
the  balance  sheet  of  the  voyage;  the  means  by  which  the 
saving  was  effected  was  not  apparent  anywhere.  The 
captain  was  praised  by  the  owner  for  the  good  showing 
he  made  in  keeping  down  his  expenses.  It  was  inevitable 
that  he  should  next  proceed  to  the  plainly  indicated  step 
of  encouraging  men  to  desert,  and  the  easy  way  to  that 
was  to  make  the  ship  so  uncomfortable  for  them  that 
they  would  not  stay.  The  only  result  that  the  owners 
perceived  was  that  here  was  a  jewel  of  a  captain;  he  could 
keep  his  expenses  down.  He  had  their  praise  and  rewards ; 
he  was  secure  in  that  place  of  his  that  one  hundred  other 
men  were  trying  to  wrest  from  him;  he  was  certain  of 
employment. 

Of  course,  what  one  captain  achieved  the  others  must 
achieve.  Other  owners  would  say  to  their  captains,  "  Here 
is  Captain  So-and-so;  he  makes  the  round  voyage  on  such 
an  expenditure :  why  can't  you  ?  "  And  their  captains 
would  be  compelled  to  do  it.  They  would  have  no  re- 
course. It  would  be  quite  useless  to  say  that  the  captain 
held  up  to  them  as  a  model  secured  his  economies  by  exer- 
cising cruelty.  The  owners  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
methods  employed  and  could  have  nothing.  All  they  knew 
was  that  their  competitor  was  operating  his  ships  for  a 
reduced  expense,  and  because  of  that  reduction  of  expense, 
was  carrying  freight  at  reduced  rates.  They  must  operate 
with  a  similar  reduction  of  expense  or  retire  from  the 
trade.  Their  ships  were  operated  to  make  money;  they 
represented  investment;  they  could  not  fairly  be  expected 
to  lose  that  investment  any  more  than  other  men  could 

31 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

be  expected  to  lose  their  investments.  Some  captains  were 
able  to  keep  down  the  expenses;  therefore  other  captains 
must  show  equally  good  results  or  lose  their  places. 

The  captains  understood  this  very  well;  so  did  the  mates, 
each  of  whom  was  striving  for  advancement.  The  "  smart " 
captains  were  sure  of  their  places;  the  "  smart "  mates  were 
sure  of  speedy  promotion;  to  be  ranked  as  "  smart  "  meant 
to  get  the  ship  through  in  the  quickest  possible  time  on 
the  smallest  possible  expense.  And  to  keep  the  expenses 
down,  here  was  the  safe  and  certain  way. 

And  if  we  come  to  that  personal  equation  we  are  all 
so  desperately  fond  of  dwelling  upon,  no  good  would 
have  resulted  if  any  captain  or  any  mate  had  refused  to 
accept  these  conditions.  He  would  merely  have  lost  his 
place,  which  would  have  been  taken  by  another  man,  who 
would  do  what  was  required  of  him  or  in  turn  lose  his 
employment.  The  practice  of  cruelty  would  not  have  been 
in  the  least  abated.  The  one  man's  conscience  might  be 
saved  some  hard  wrenches,  but  no  fewer  heads  would  be 
broken  on  the  Cape  Homers.  Similarly,  no  good  would 
have  resulted  if  any  owner  had  revolted  against  the  laws 
of  competition.  He  could  do  nothing  but  retire  from  the 
trade,  and  whoever  should  take  his  place  would  be  driven 
to  keep  his  expenses  down  or  in  turn  be  driven  to  the  wall. 
And  neither  his  objection  nor  any  other  man's  would  alter 
the  conditions  of  the  contest  that  competition  institutes 
everywhere. 

It  is  always  interesting  to  note  how  differently  different 
aspects  of  an  identical  subject  will  appeal  to  different  per- 
sons, and  how  hard  it  is  sometimes  to  recognize  a  funda- 
mental truth  if  it  be  but  slightly  disguised.  I  have  never 
told  the  story  of  the  bucko  mate  without  calling  forth 
indignant  comments,  as  if  it  were  a  thing  unique  in  the 


The  Story  of  the  Bucko  Mate 

record  of  human  savagery.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  only 
one  phase  of  a  common  evil  and  one  fruit  of  a  principle 
that  similarly  affects  wide  areas  of  humanity.  To  beat  men 
on  the  high  seas  is  not  really  worse  than  to  slaughter  them 
on  railroad  grade  crossings,  poison  them  with  putrid  meat, 
or  allow  them  to  burn  to  death  because  of  rotten  fire  hose. 
A  series  of  events  passing  now  under  my  immediate  notice 
served  to  sharpen  the  perception  that  the  bucko  mate  was 
only  one  product  of  the  competition  and  greed  that  filled 
the  world  with  misery. 

For  instance  the  legislature  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
moved  by  some  dreadful  railroad  accidents,  had  passed 
a  law  for  the  better  protection  of  passengers'  lives,  direct- 
ing the  removal  of  stoves  from  passenger  cars.  Some  of 
the  railroads  ignored  this  law.  Because  of  this  lawless- 
ness six  persons  were  burned  to  death  in  the  Park  Avenue 
tunnel,  in  New  York  City,  and  (as  it  happened)  almost 
before  my  eyes.  When  the  responsibility  was  by  the  news- 
papers brought  home  to  the  officers  of  the  offending  railroad 
they  said  that  the  law  was  unfair,  that  the  change  from 
stoves  to  another  method  of  heating  would  have  entailed  too 
great  an  expense,  and  that  the  finances  of  the  road  would 
not  have  justified  them  in  making  the  change.  Yet  we 
knew  quite  well  that  this  railroad,  the  New  York,  New 
Haven  &  Hartford,  had  been  enormously  over-capitalized, 
and  that  a  large  part  of  its  earnings  had  been  used  to  pay 
the  interest  on  fictitious  securities. 

Six  months  later,  in  a  collision  on  another  railroad, 
seventy-two  persons  were  killed  or  maimed.  A  reporter 
called  to  the  attention  of  the  managers  the  fact  that  a  device 
used  abroad  would  have  made  such  an  accident  impossible. 
The  managers  did  not  deny  this,  but  said  that  to  install  such 
an  apparatus  on  their  railroad  would  involve  an  expense 

33 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

that  in  justice  to  the  stockholders  could  not  be  assumed. 
And  yet,  of  the  capitalization  of  this  railroad  two-thirds 
were  fictitious  and  constituted  only  "  melons "  to  the 
owners.  From  these  "  melons  "  had  been  built,  in  a  single 
generation,  one  of  the  most  gigantic  fortunes  in  the  world, 
a  tithe  of  which  would  have  made  the  railroad  safe  instead 
of  dangerous. 

The  same  year  saw  a  strike  of  switchmen  employed  on 
this  railroad.  They  had  been  in  receipt  of  something  like 
$40  a  month,  if  I  remember  right,  and  asked  for  $4-2  or 
$45.  The  management  indignantly  rejected  the  demand. 
Much  difficulty  was  experienced  in  operating  the  railroad 
from  New  York  to  Buffalo,  traffic  was  impeded,  and  the 
militia  was  called  out,  though  for  what  just  reason  was  not 
clear.  At  Buffalo  the  military  commander  drew  an  imag- 
inary line  on  the  highway  beyond  which  no  striker  was 
to  step.  A  man  passed  that  line  (inadvertently,  it  was 
asserted)  and  a  soldier  shot  him  dead.  This  seemed  much 
the  same  as  to  smite  him  down  with  a  belaying  pin.  Neither 
the  shooter  nor  his  commanding  officer  was  punished  for 
the  bloodshed.  I  believe  they  were  not  even  obliged  to 
find  bail. 

Soon  after  this  event  the  beautiful  new  steam  yacht  of  a 
principal  owner  of  the  railroad  made  its  first  appearance 
in  port.  She  was  almost  as  large  and  cost  almost  as  much 
as  an  ocean  liner,  and  all  the  skill  and  resources  of  the 
foreign  builder  had  been  taxed  to  equip  her  lavishly  with 
beautiful  cabins,  parlors,  music  room,  saloon,  marble  bath- 
rooms, hangings  of  fabulous  price.  The  owner  was  on 
board.  Some  of  us  were  relieved  from  strike  duty  and  went 
down  the  bay  to  interview  him.  He  was  a  solemn  man 
and  took  himself,  his  position,  and  his  yacht  seriously. 
He  had   a   great  many   servants,   all   of  whom   were   very 

34 


The  Story  of  the  Bucko  Mate 

deferential  and  humble  toward  him,  and  very  arrogant 
toward  everybody  else.  It  was  difficult  to  see  him,  almost 
as  difficult  as  to  get  an  audience  with  a  foreign  potentate. 
He  came  out  at  last  and  said  a  few  words  about  his  yacht. 
We  told  him  about  the  strike,  but  he  did  not  seem  interested, 
and  quickly  excusing  himself  retired  into  what  seemed  to  be 
the  gloomy  and  revered  state  of  his  cabin. 

The  switchmen  lost  their  strike,  and  such  as  could  regain 
their  positions  returned  to  work  at  the  old  wages.  Even 
in  those  days  $40  a  month  was  a  very  small  income  on  which 
to  support  a  family,  and  nearly  all  of  the  strikers  were 
married.  A  switchman's  duties  are  both  arduous  and  exact- 
ing. I  suppose  you  have  noticed  the  long  cabins  in  which 
the  switchmen  work  in  a  railroad  yard  or  at  a  junction. 
There  is  a  row  of  perhaps  thirty  or  forty  levers,  each 
controlling  a  different  switch  in  the  yards,  aHd  the  men 
go  to  and  fro  throwing  these  levers  back  and  forth  as 
the  trains  come  or  go.  Sometimes  an  error  in  the  use  of 
one  lever  might  cause  the  loss  of  a  hundred  lives  and  much 
property.  Yet  the  men  make  very  few  errors.  They  are 
therefore  assisting  the  enterprise,  they  are  doing  a  work 
useful  and  necessary,  they  are  of  service  to  society,  they 
contribute  something  that  the  world  must  have.  And  at 
that  time  they  were  drawing  from  the  enterprise  the  barest 
subsistence,  no  more  than  enough  to  maintain  life  on  the 
most  slender  terms. 

.  The  owner  of  the  yacht  had  never  contributed  anything 
to  the  enterprise.  He  did  not  even  attend  the  meetings 
of  the  board  of  directors  of  which  he  was  a  member.  He 
was  of  no  service  to  it  nor  to  society.  Yet  from  the  enter- 
prise to  which  he  contributed  nothing  he  had  dr*awn  this 
floating  palace,  a  stately  residence  in  New  York,  a  chateau 
in  France,  a  stable  of  racing  horses,  and  an  annual  income 

35 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

that  no  luxury  nor  extravagance  could  exhaust,  even  when 
he  gambled  with  it  at  Monte  Carlo.  The  fortune  that  had 
placed  him  in  this  regal  position  had  been  drawn  from 
the  public  largely  by  fraud,  and  the  means  of  his  luxury 
were  obtained  by  unfair  charges  upon  shippers  that  affected 
millions  of  consumers  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  As  in 
the  case  of  the  workless  miners  and  the  freezing  East  Side 
there  seemed  to  be  no  power  of  casuistry  that  could  dis- 
guise the  monstrous  injustice  of  this  situation.  And  here 
again  was  the  most  obvious  fact  that  the  inexhaustible 
fortune  and  beautiful  yacht  of  the  railroad  owner  were 
of  no  possible  benefit  to  the  public.  Except  for  the  occa- 
sional privilege  of  beholding  the  beautiful  yacht  from  afar 
as  she  sped  abroad  with  her  fortunate  owner,  these  things 
meant  nothing  in  the  world  to  the  public.  What  the  public 
wanted  was  transportation;  it  did  not  need  yachts,  nor 
Monte  Carlo,  nor  racing  stables:  and  all  these  amusements 
of  the  railroad  owner  furthered  in  no  way  the  public's 
transportation  service,  but  only  hindered  and  impaired  that 
service.  And  here  again  was  the  most  obvious  question 
as  to  what  the  public  had  gained  from  its  bestowal  of 
those  privileges  from  which  this  monstrous  fortune  had 
been  gained  and  the  yacht  had  been  built.  To  this  question 
I  have  never  found  any  answer,  nor  been  able  to  hear  of 
any  person  that  has  found  one. 

When  the  managers  of  this  railroad  had  been  asked  why 
the  request  of  the  switchmen  for  an  increase  of  pay  had 
not  been  granted  the  management  had  responded  with  two 
reasons.  First,  that  the  increased  wages  asked  were  un- 
reasonable in  view  of  the  state  of  the  labor  market;  that 
is  to  say,  that  competition  among  workingmen  had  acted  to 
keep  down  the  price  of  labor.  Second,  that  the  financial 
condition  of  the  road  was  such  that  the  increase  could  not 

36 


The  Story  of  the  Bucko  Mate 

be  afforded.  Yet  if  from  the  beginning  there  had  been  no 
issuing  of  fictitious  or  watered  stock  this  railroad  could 
afford  to  pay  its  switchmen  $200  a  month  and  still  return 
ample  dividends  on  all  of  the  money  actually  invested  in 
it.  There  seemed  to  be  no  escape  from  the  conclusion  that 
this  was  a  condition  extremely  difficult  to  defend. 


37 


CHAPTER  III 


MORE  ABOUT  BUCKO  MATES 


Of  the  identical  principle  involved  in  all  these  matters 
many  illustrations  came  afterward  under  my  observation. 
For  instance,  the  burning  of  a  steamboat  with  the  loss  of 
several  hundred  lives  was  the  means  of  revealing  the 
fact  that  some  manufacturers  of  life  preservers  for  use 
at  sea  were  in  the  habit  of  filling  their  product  with  scrap 
iron  instead  of  cork,  because  scrap  iron  was  cheaper. 
This  was,  of  course,  equivalent  to  causing  the  death  of 
almost  any  person  obliged  to  intrust  his  safety  to  such 
a  device.  Upon  the  publication  of  this  discovery  a  wave 
of  horror  swept  over  the  country  and  the  manufacturers 
were  somewhat  recklessly  denounced  as  cold-hearted  vil- 
lains and  no  better  than  murderers.  A  little  investigation 
showed  that  they  were  not,  in  fact,  of  depraved  or  even 
unusual  character.  Competition  was  keen  in  their  trade. 
For  every  contract  to  supply  life  preservers  there  was  a 
surplus  of  bidders.  Under  the  stress  of  this  conflict  the 
quality  of  the  goods  gradually  declined  as  the  prices  were 
cut  in  competitive  bidding.  From  making  life  preservers 
of  cork  so  poor  that  it  would  not  float,  the  manufacturers 
drifted  into  the  habit  of  filling  the  life  preservers  with  other 
and  still  cheaper  materials.  Disastrous  as  the  results  might 
be,  no  one  in  the  trade  really  contemplated  manslaughter. 
It  was  a  custom  brought  about  by  competition  and  probably 
accepted  without  thought  in  the  fierce  battle  for  business. 

About  this  time  the  Chicago  Tribune,  as  the  result  of 

38 


More  About  Bucko  Mates 

long  and  minute  investigations,  made  known  some  startling 
facts  concerning  the  prevalence  of  adulteration  in  the 
drug  trade.  It  declared  that  of  one  substance  quite 
commonly  used  in  surgical  dressings  it  had  been  unable 
to  find  a  pure  specimen  at  any  drug  store,  and  most  of 
the  many  specimens  purchased  had  been  not  merely  adul- 
terated, but  adulterated  with  a  chemical  extremely  dan- 
gerous to  introduce  into  a  wound.  The  Tribune's  conclu- 
sions, all  apparently  well  based  upon  investigation  and 
analysis,  were  that  the  adulteration  of  the  most  important 
drugs  was  almost  universal.  Much  indignation  followed 
this  showing,  and  the  manufacturers  guilty  of  putting  forth 
these  goods  and  druggists  that  knowingly  purveyed  them 
were  bitterly  denounced.  But  here  again  it  appeared  that 
neither  the  manufacturers  nor  the  dealers  were  villains,  nor 
different  from  other  men.  Strange  as  at  first  thought  it  may 
seem,  they  were  really  estimable  persons.  The  practice 
had  grown  up  without  the  responsibility  or  even  consent 
of  any  man.  Competition  was  keen  in  the  drug  trade; 
prices  were  cut  to  obtain  business;  to  maintain  at  such 
prices  the  pristine  quality  of  the  drugs  was  impossible. 
By  a  slow  declension  inferior  quality  became  adulteration, 
and  adulteration  grew  worse.  It  was  a  custom  of  the  trade 
and  a  product  of  competition. 

A  civil  suit  in  New  York  between  manufacturers 
of  woolen  underclothing  and  a  dealer  therein  revealed  in 
court  that  a  very  large  part  of  the  undergarments  sold 
as  pure  wool  really  contained  from  25  to  50  per  cent, 
of  cotton.  It  was  admitted  that  to  persons  of  feeble  con- 
stitutions or  of  weak  lungs  this  deception  might  have  the 
gravest  consequences;  but  the  men  that  made  cotton  goods 
for  woolen  did  not  intend  to  spread  tuberculosis  and  in- 
fluenza.     Competition   was   keen   in   their    trade;    by    the 

89 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

admixture  of  a  little  cotton  a  manufacturer  was  able  to 
offer  his  goods  at  a  lower  rate.  In  a  short  time  all  the 
manufacturers  were  mixing  cotton  with  their  woolens.  If 
they  had  not  done  so  they  would  have  lost  business  and 
in  the  end  would  have  been  ruined.  A  stronger  law  than 
regard  for  human  life  drove  them  into  the  practice.  If 
a  man's  competitors  resort  to  a  deception  that  reduces  the 
cost  of  their  product  he  must  resort  to  the  like  deception 
or  retire  from  business.  He  has  no  alternative;  he  abso- 
lutely must  do  as  they  do  or  give  over  the  fight.  And 
if  he  gives  over  the  fight  that  will  help  nothing.  The 
deception  will  go  on  as  before.  His  place  will  be  taken 
by  another,  who  will  practice  the  deception  in  turn  or 
be  ruined.  That  a  man  should  accept  ruin  merely  because 
he  will  not  practice  what  is  universal  in  his  trade  is  an 
act  of  quixotic  virtue  that  we  never  have  required  and 
never  should  expect.  If  he  does  what  the  rest  do  that  is 
enough  of  honesty.  You  cannot  demand  of  him  more. 
Competition  rules  him  with  iron  rods.  He  must  do  this 
and  he  must  not  do  that,  law  or  no  law,  and  no  matter  what 
the  results  may  be  to  others. 

This  great  fundamental  truth,  so  often  overlooked  by 
spasmodic  moralists,  was  very  frankly  professed  before 
Congress  when  what  is  called  the  Pure  Food  Law  was 
under  debate.  Advocates  of  the  measure  showed  con- 
clusively that  the  adulteration  of  food  products  was  a  com- 
mon practice.  One  member  of  Congress  covered  the  top 
of  his  desk  in  the  House  with  samples  of  food  purchased 
in  the  open  market  all  containing  adulterants.  Some  of 
the  adulteration  was  with  substances  exceedingly  injurious 
to  health  and  some  with  deadly  poisons.  For  instance, 
salicylic  acid  and  formaline  or  formaldehyde  were  very 
generally  used  as  preservatives,  and,  of  course,  as  to  the 

40 


More  About  Bucko  Mates 

injurious  and  even  perilous  nature  of  these  substances  there 
was  no  chance  for  dispute.  Borax  or  boracic  acid  was 
used  on  practically  all  meats  and  poultry  that  underwent 
a  considerable  transportation,  and  experiments  by  the  na- 
tional health  department  established  beyond  question  the 
extremely  harmful  effects  of  these  drugs  when  taken  in- 
ternally. It  also  appeared  that  an  immense  number  of 
prepared  foods  were  fraudulent.  Jams  and  jellies  were 
made  of  sawdust,  pumpkin  rind,  and  dyes;  apple  butter 
was  made  of  sawdust  and  acids;  honey  was  made  of  glu- 
cose; vinegar  and  syrups  of  all  kinds  were  artificially  pre- 
pared; canned  peas  were  artificially  colored;  certain  condi- 
ments were  made  of  pumpkin  rinds  and  the  seeds  of  a  com- 
mon weed;  cider  was  so  generally  made  of  mineral  acids 
that  almost  no  pure  cider  could  be  obtained  in  the  market; 
mince  meat  was  often  a  hash  of  repulsive  materials  colored 
and  flavored;  marmalades  were  made  of  stewed  wood,  and 
coffee  beans  of  flour  paste.  These  are  but  a  few  samples  of 
a  condition  that  to  the  uninitiated  seemed  appalling.  In- 
stead of  food  it  appeared  that  the  nation  was  being  fed 
upon  refuse  and  poisons. 

To  cure  this  huge  and  menacing  evil  a  law  was  asked. 
It  was  fiercely  and  resolutely  opposed  on  the  ground 
that  the  substitutions  and  adulterations  were  not  really 
injurious,  and  that  to  forbid  their  use  would  be  ruinous  to 
business.  Competition  was  not  only  keen  but  peculiarly 
interwoven ;  because  while  two  manufacturers,  for  instance, 
might  compete  in  some  lines  each  would  have  a  line  in 
which  the  other  did  not  compete,  and  it  was  from  the 
profits  in  this  line  that  the  losses  caused  by  competition 
in  other  lines  were  repaired.  Still  more  important  was 
the  overshadowing  menace  of  foreign  competition.  Other 
nations  did  not  thus  restrict  their  manufacturers,  who,  if 

41 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

the  law  passed,  would  have  the  American  manufacturers 
at  their  mercy. 

The  force  of  these  arguments  must  have  been  perceived 
by  Congress,  for  it  obligingly  took  from  the  law  every  feature 
that  could  seriously  interfere  with  adulteration  and  passed 
a  measure  that  bore  the  name  of  the  Pure  Food  Law  with- 
out really  securing  purity. 

In  the  same  discussion  interesting  conclusions  were 
reached  as  to  what  are  called  short  weights.  It  appeared 
that  many  manufacturers  had  a  table  of  weights  and  meas- 
ures quite  different  from  any  recognized  by  law  or  the 
text-books.  A  pound  with  them  was  usually  fourteen  and 
sometimes  thirteen  ounces,  and  a  so-called  three-pound  can 
really  contained  only  a  trifle  over  two  pounds,  although 
sold  as  containing  three.  The  attempt  to  rectify  this  fraud 
was  defeated  on  the  ground  that  it  was  necessary  to  enable 
the  American  manufacturer  to  do  business  and  meet  com- 
petition. 

Some  persons  that  noted  these  revelations  broke  forth 
into  clamor  against  men  that  sold  poisoned  foods  and  put 
forth  fraudulent  weights,  denouncing  them ,  violently ;  but 
we  may  as  well  admit  that  in  truth  they  were  not  worse 
than  other  men.  Most  of  them  had  much  personal  worth. 
A  man  that  made  fruit  jellies  from  sawdust  for  example, 
was  well  known  to  be  of  unusually  high  character,  kindly, 
generous,  and  honest.  Competition  was  keen  in  the  trade; 
the  pressure  to  produce  goods  at  lower  cost  was  enormous 
and  irresistible.  If  your  competitor  could  offer  goods  at 
less  than  your  prices  he  won  and  you  lost  the  trade.  That 
was  business.  You  could  not  expect  a  retailer  to  purchase 
your  goods  at  a  higher  price  merely  to  oblige  you  or  be- 
cause you  said  you  were  honest.  If  he  were  to  do  that  he 
in  turn  would  be  ruined  by  his  competitor.     An  inevitable 

42 


More  About  Bucko  Mates 

law,  beyond  all  ethics,  all  legislation  of  men,  all  considera- 
tions of  public  health,  all  accepted  notions  of  honesty,  abso- 
lutely demanded  that  you  should  do  as  your  competitor  did. 
You  must  meet  his  price  list  or  retire  from  business,  and  if 
you  retired  that  would  do  no  good,  for  the  man  that  took 
your  place  must  practice  the  adulteration  or  perpetrate 
the  deceit  or  go  himself  to  ruin. 

In  other  words,  what  was  at  fault  was  not  the  character 
of  the  man  involved.  Men  that  can  tomatoes  or  make 
glucose  are  no  worse  than  other  men.  The  effort  to  make 
them  appear  so  is  most  unjust;  so  is  every  effort  to  shift 
upon  the  individual  the  responsibility  for  a  general  con- 
dition. What  was  at  fault  was  the  system,  and  nothing 
else.  It  was  clear  that  so  long  as  men  to  live  must  fight 
upon  the  battlefield  of  competition  they  will  do  all  these 
things  and  worse,  and  literally  all  the  laws  that  human 
ingenuity  can  devise  will  not  stop  them. 

We  can  see  some  unexpected  results  of  this  system,  and 
also  the  reason  why  the  system  itself  is  doomed  to  break 
down  if  we  will  but  look  for  a  time  at  things  as  they 
really  are. 

Let  me  illustrate  again.  I  will  take  two  examples  fa- 
miliar, no  doubt,  to  all  observing  travelers  in  the  Orient. 
At  Port  Said  I  found  that  the  ships  were  coaled  by  a 
swarm  of  wretched  brown  men,  stripped  to  the  loins,  who 
from  barges  moored  alongside  carried  the  coal  in  baskets 
to  the  steamer's  hold.  They  worked  in  a  suffocating  cloud 
of  dust,  the  heat  when  I  observed  the  strange  spectacle 
was  maddening,  and  they  were  driven,  one  might  say,  under 
the  lash,  for  the  armed  overseers  were  essentially  slave 
drivers.  When  one  fainted  or  perished  at  his  task  another 
instantly  arose  to  take  his  place.  I  knew  that  in  many 
other  ports  machinery  was  used  to  coal  vessels,  and  I  per- 

43 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

ceived  that  here  human  life  was  cheaper  than  machinery 
because  competition  had  made  it  cheaper. 

In  Colombo,  as  in  many  other  cities  of  the  East,  con- 
veyance through  the  streets  is  by  the  'rickshaw,  a  little 
carriage  hauled  by  a  man.  The  work  is  so  hard  and  un- 
natural that  it  strains  the  heart,  and  the  average  length 
of  a  'rickshaw  man's  life  after  he  enters  the  trade  is  eight 
years.  Then  he  dies  of  heart  trouble.  You  see  almost 
no  automobiles  or  carriages  in  the  streets  of  these  cities, 
and  the  intelligent  natives  laugh  at  the  idea  that  auto- 
mobiles should  be  introduced.  Human  beasts  of  burden 
are  cheaper  than  automobiles  or  carriages,  and  competition 
has  made  them  so. 

In  every  Oriental  country  you  will  see  men  and  women 
doing  work  that  is  elsewhere  done  with  machinery,  and 
will  find  that  the  introduction  of  machinery  is  unnecessary 
because  human  life  is  cheaper;  and  again  competition  has 
made  it  so. 

At  first  thought  the  investigator,  particularly  if  he  be 
an  American,  is  inclined  to  think  that  these  conditions 
result  from  the  Oriental  cruelty  of  which  he  has  heard  so 
much,  or  from  the  overcrowded  populations  or  from  some 
other  reason  peculiar  to  the  locality. 

He  need  but  turn  for  a  moment  to  any  of  the  great 
steel  works  of  America  to  see  how  baseless  is  this  notion. 
Take  the  works  of  the  Illinois  Steel  Company  at  South 
Chicago,  which  constitute  an  independent  principality  not 
affected  by  the  laws  of  Illinois  nor  of  the  nation,  where 
men  are  daily  maimed  and  almost  daily  killed  without 
reckoning  from  the  police  or  other  constituted  authority. 
Or  take  one  of  the  great  Carnegie  works  in  or  about  Pitts- 
burg; go  into  one  (if  you  can)  at  night.  A  vast  swarm 
of  men,  naked  to  the  waist,  toil  here  at  the  imminent  risk  of 

44 


More  About  Bucko  Mates 

the  most  terrible  form  of  death.  Here  men  with  wheelbar- 
rows pass  along  a  narrow  foot-way  twenty  feet  in  the  air, 
throwing  spiegeleisen  into  the  great  furnaces.  A  single  mis- 
step in  the  glare,  confusion,  and  smoke  of  the  place 
would  plunge  any  one  of  them  into  the  seething  metal 
below.  Here  are  men  surrounding  a  crucible  of  melted 
steel  moved  with  a  huge  crane.  Almost  every  night  the 
crucible  upsets  or  breaks  or  in  some  degree  goes  wrong 
and  somebody  is  horribly  killed  or  horribly  burned.  As 
many  as  five  men  have  been  killed  in  a  night  in 
one  of  these  places ;  on  some  fortunate  nights  men 
will  be  only  a  little  burned  or  maybe  crippled  for 
life.  In  another  place  are  the  rollers.  Snakes  of  white 
hot  steel  shoot  out  from  between  them.  Men  stand  ready 
with  great  tongs  to  catch  each  snake  as  it  issues  and  run 
forward  with  it  all  its  length  and  then  return  it  through 
other  rollers  for  men  on  the  other  side  to  catch  and  run 
with.  One  inadvertent  movement  and  the  white  hot  snake 
strikes  a  workman  on  the  naked  breast  maybe  and  darts 
through  him  and  impales  him.  Then  the  shed  or  the  mill 
echoes  above  the  din  of  the  machinery  with  one  awful 
scream,  and  all  the  men  know  the  end  of  one  man's 
troubles.  They  have  five  minutes  in  which  to  get  his  body 
out  of  the  way.  Once  they  were  allowed  three;  now  they 
are  allowed  five.  Then  they  must  be  back  at  their  work, 
each  of  them  knowing  that  the  next  instant  it  may  be 
his  turn  to  fall  and  be  by  his  fellows  cast  out  of  the 
way. 

Of  these  deaths  the  authorities  ceased  long  ago  to  take 
cognizance.  Not  because  the  authorities  were  callous  or 
cruel,  but  because  the  deaths  were  too  common;  they  were 
merely  a  part  of  the  business;  they  always  happened  in 
about  the  same  way;  it  was  but  a  cog  gone  from  the  wheel, 

45 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

and  instantly  replaced.  No  good  could  come  from  daily 
repeating  the  same  farce  of  formal  inquest — over  a  cog. 

Yet  observe.  The  work  is  extremely  dangerous.  It  is 
also  very  ill  paid.  By  it  men  win,  as  the  men  on  the 
Port  Said  coal  barges  win,  the  price  of  a  loaf  and  little 
more.  Yet  as  fast  as  one  man  is  stricken  down  in  this 
terrible  way  another  springs  forward  to  take  his  place. 
Competition  upon  them  is  a  power  much  greater  than 
the  armed  overseer  at  Port  Said.  Before  it  they  strive 
for  work,  even  when  it  threatens  death  from  molten  steel. 

And  are  the  dangers  inevitable  and  inseparable  from  the 
trade?  By  no  means.  Most  of  them  are  preventable  with 
the  use  of  machinery  and  protective  devices.  And  why 
are  not  machinery  and  protective  devices  used?  Because 
here,  as  at  Port  Said  and  Colombo  and  Hong  Kong 
and  everywhere  else  in  the  world  under  the  competitive 
system,  human  life  is  cheaper  than  machinery. 

There  is  still  more  to  be  learned  from  these  steel  mills. 
Every  now  and  then  some  kind-hearted  person  calls  atten- 
tion to  the  slaughters  that  occur  so  often  in  these  places, 
and  an  effort  is  made  to  secure  an  improvement  of 
conditions.  It  was  such  a  movement  that  secured  the 
lengthening  of  the  time  allowed  for  the  removing  of  dead 
bodies.  Formerly  the  time  was  three  minutes;  now  it  is 
five.  Regulation,  agitation,  the  efforts  of  the  kind-hearted, 
and  the  appeals  of  the  charitable  have  had  no  other  result. 
In  spite  of  all  that  has  been  said  or  can  be  said  on  this 
subject,  the  steel  mills  go  on  as  before,  grinding  up  men, 
and  for  each  man  ground  to  his  death  another  springs 
forward  to  take  the  vacant  place.  It  is  so  now;  it  will 
continue  to  be  so  while  the  system  lasts  that  makes  it  so. 

And  now  for  the  influence  that  will  insure  the  break- 
down of  the  system. 

46 


More  About  Bucko  Mates 

The  steel  industry  in  America  is  an  excellent  example 
of  the  world-wide  movement  for  concentration  and  con- 
solidation. It  is  conducted  by  a  trust,  and  one  of  the 
greatest  and  most  perfect  trusts  in  the  world.  There  are 
no  independent  iron-masters;  all  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
trust. 

Now,  the  trust  hires  managers  to  conduct  its  business, 
and  each  manager  has  for  his  first  duty  and  object  the 
securing  of  results.  Likewise,  all  his  subordinate  executives 
down  to  the  last  foreman  are  hired  to  secure  results.  If 
any  one  of  them  cannot  show  results  he  must  give  way  to 
one  that  can.  That  is  the  inevitable  law,  and  under  the 
present  system  it  is  neither  unnatural  nor  unjust.  To 
suppose  that  the  course  these  managers  pursue  is  in  any 
way  optional  with  them,  or  to  blame  them  because  their 
course  sometimes  seems  cruel  is  a  very  simple  blunder. 
The  manager  is  himself  but  a  piece  of  machinery;  if  he 
cannot  perform  his  allotted  work  he  is  removed  and  an- 
other takes  his  place.  He  would  do  no  good  if  he  were 
to  refuse  to  do  the  things  or  to  pursue  the  policy  that 
seems  heartless  and  cruel;  he  would  merely  lose  his  em- 
ployment, and  his  successor  would  do  the  things  that  seem 
heartless  and  cruel,  or  he,  too,  would  be  removed.  To  the 
showing  of  results,  which  is  the  test  as  well  as  the  object  of 
his  employment,  these  things  are,  under  the  present  system, 
necessary;  and  not  only  necessary  but  daily  they  become 
more  common.  For  the  surest  result  of  the  process  of  con- 
solidation that  produces  the  trust  is  the  elimination  of 
the  individual  workman  and  the  production  of  the  human 
machine. 

Take  for  example  the  steel  mill  that  we  have  previously 
considered.  A  very  large  proportion  of  the  accidents  that 
occur  in   this   mill   result,   as   before   observed,   from   the 

47 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

absence  of  protective  devices  and  life-saving  machinery. 
In  the  days  when  there  were  independent  forge  owners, 
each  owner  naturally  felt  some  degree  of  personal  responsi- 
bility for  the  safety  of  the  men  in  his  employ.  He  hired 
them,  they  did  his  work  and  took  his  money,  he  knew 
many  or  perhaps  all  of  them  by  name;  if  any  of 
them  were  injured  the  proprietor  knew  of  it;  the  vision 
of  the  hurt  man  with  his  wife  and  children  was  to  the  em- 
ployer a  thing  of  verity;  the  scene  was  always  latent  in  his 
mind.  But  with  the  hired  manager  the  case  is  very  dif- 
ferent. He  has  no  responsibility  for  the  workmen.  They 
do  not  take  his  money  nor  do  his  work;  he  is  himself  but 
a  hired  man  directing  other  hired  men,  the  most  of  whom 
have  no  more  vital  existence  to  him  than  so  many  pieces  of 
machinery.  He  is  employed  to  extract  from  them  the 
greatest  amount  of  work  for  the  least  expenditure  of  money. 
If  they  are  hurt  or  killed  the  fact  has  to  him  no  direct 
significance.  If  injured  men  sue  the  company  the 
manager  is  not  sued;  he  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  human 
side  of  their  employment.  The  greatest  amount  of  work 
for  the  least  expenditure  of  money  is  his  sole  aim,  and  the 
criterion  of  his  success.  If  he  achieve  in  these  ways  he 
wins  success  and  is  retained;  if  he  achieve  not,  he  is 
rejected. 

Therefore,  he  does  not  add  protective  devices  and  life- 
saving  machinery  to  the  plant  under  his  control.  Such 
additions  would  show  on  his  balance  sheet;  they  would 
be  an  increased  expenditure  without  the  least  increase  in 
the  work  performed  nor  in  the  revenue  earned.  On  the 
table  of  results  by  which  he  is  judged  they  would  be 
but  entries  against  him;  no  matter  how  much  he  may 
believe  in  them  as  abstract  propositions,  in  practice  he 
cannot  adopt  them  because  they  have  nothing  to  do  with 

48 


More  About  Bucko  Mates 

the  purpose  of  his  employment,  which  is  to  secure  the 
greatest  amount  of  work  for  the  least  expenditure  of  money. 

But  then,  how  about  his  employer,  the  company?  His 
immediate  superiors,  who  direct  him,  and  to  whom  he  is 
first  responsible,  are  the  officers  of  the  corporation,  hired, 
like  himself,  to  secure  results.  They  sit  far  away  in  an 
office ;  the  factory  is  to  them  a  remote  and  not  very  tangible 
thing  for  the  production  of  the  results  that  they  in  turn 
must  show  to  their  employer,  which  is  the  corporation. 
If  they  cannot  show  results,  if  their  management  is  deemed 
unprofitable,  they  will  be  succeeded  by  other  officers  that 
can  show  results. 

And  the  corporation  that  is  the  final  employer  of  all? 
That  consists  of  three  or  four  thousand  persons  scattered 
all  about  the  country  and  in  Europe,  changing  as  the 
stock  of  the  corporation  is  bought  and  sold;  all  ignorant 
of  the  conditions  in  the  works,  ignorant  of  the  killing 
and  maiming  there,  knowing  only  that  they  have  in- 
vested in  the  stock,  that  they  must  have  dividends  on  the 
investment;  and  necessarily,  and  not  unreasonably,  indiffer- 
ent as  to  the  details. 

How  foolish  then  to  suppose  that  anywhere  along  this 
chain  is  a  place  where  the  personal  character  of  the  men 
involved  could  change  the  situation  or  ameliorate  condi- 
tions for  those  that  at  the  incessant  risk  of  their  lives 
work  about  the  furnaces!  Suppose  each  of  the  stockhold- 
ers of  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation  to  be  a  most 
kind-hearted,  compassionate  man.  If  you  could  by  any 
means  make  him  understand  the  hell  that  his  company 
maintains,  he  would  be  powerless  to  change  it.  Let  the 
officers  be  wholly  unselfish  philanthropists,  and  they  shall 
still  be  equally  impotent.  Let  the  managers  be  moved  to 
tears   by  every  accident,  they  can  do  nothing  that  shall 

49 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

prevent  accidents.  The  whole  organization  is  utterly  im- 
personal; it  is  hard,  mechanical,  inhuman,  relentless,  and 
must  be  so,  and  cannot  possibly  be  otherwise.  To  make 
profits,  to  declare  dividends,  to  meet  the  interest  on  the 
outstanding  securities,  to  produce  steel,  to  produce  it  with 
the  least  possible  expenditure  of  money:  these  are  the 
only  considerations  that  can  be  entertained  anywhere,  at 
any  time,  by  any  person  in  the  organization. 

The  larger  the  organization  the  more  these  conditions 
must  prevail.  And  as  the  small  organizations  are  every- 
where giving  place  to  larger,  and  the  larger  to  the  largest; 
as  competition  forces  the  men  at  one  end  of  the  line  into 
the  mill  where  their  lives  are  ground  out;  and  as  the 
power  of  accumulated  capital  at  the  other  end  forces  from 
the  enterprise  the  profits  for  which  alone  the  enterprise 
at  present  can  be  conducted,  it  is  evident  that  the  idea 
of  ameliorating  these  hells  by  appeals  or  agitation  is  merely 
an  amiable  delusion.  While  we  talk,  agitate,  and  appeal 
the  hells  grow  steadily  worse,  the  lives  of  the  men  em- 
ployed in  them  become  of  the  less  account. 

To  suppose  that  we  shall  allow  these  things  to  increase 
upon  us  is  contrary  to  every  humane  and  decent  impulse, 
and  contrary  to  the  better  sense  of  our  duty  to  our 
fellows  that  is  awakening  among  us.  Yet  if  we  think 
we  can  effect  anything  by  laws,  that  is  again  mere  folly. 
All  the  laws  that  now  exist  are  nullified  by  these  corpora- 
tions whenever  the  laws  interfere  in  any  way  with  the 
supreme  purpose  of  making  profits.  The  Illinois  Steel 
Company,  for  instance,  a  branch  of  the  Steel  Trust,  at 
South  Chicago,  is,  as  I  have  said,  an  independent  and 
sovereign  power,  acknowledging  no  authority  but  its  own. 
Neither  police,  nor  coroner,  nor  any  other  city  or  county 
officer  is  admitted  to  its  precincts.     No  inquests  are  held 

50 


More  About  Bucko  Mates 

on  the  men  it  kills;  no  inquiry  is  allowed,  no  questions  can 
be  asked.  These  facts  have  been  pointed  out  repeatedly 
in  the  public  press;  the  law  remains  inert,  and  will  remain 
so,  before  the  incalculable  power  of  necessity,  which  is  su- 
perior to  all  law. 

Why  should  we  not  admit  facts  as  they  exist?  What 
does  it  profit  us  to  pretend  the  impossible?  Do  you  say 
that  we  should  enforce  these  laws  upon  the  corporations? 
Exactly  how  can  we  enforce  upon  any  corporation  a  law 
that  it  does  not  choose  to  obey?  The  punishments  for 
law  violations  not  of  a  capital  nature  are  of  but  two  kinds, 
fine  or  imprisonment.  Suppose,  then,  we  fine  a  lawbreak- 
ing  corporation.  It  does  but  pass  the  fine  along  to  us 
by  increasing  the  price  of  its  product  or  of  its  service; 
we  pay  the  fine  not  once  but  many  times,  the  corporation 
suffers  not  at  all.  Or  if  we  turn  to  imprisonment,  whom 
shall  we  imprison?  Putting  aside  decisions  of  the  courts 
that  the  officers  of  a  corporation  cannot  be  imprisoned  for 
the  corporation's  acts,  let  us  suppose  that  we  imprison 
all  the  officers  of  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation. 
They  will  be  succeeded  by  other  officers  that  must  pursue 
the  policy  and  repeat  the  acts  of  their  predecessors.  Not 
because  they  will  be  bad  men  or  more  lawless  than  other 
men,  but  because  these  acts  and  this  policy  will  be  forced 
upon  them  as  upon  others  by  inexorable  necessity,  inherent 
in  the  nature  and  objects  of  the  organization  that  they 
serve.  And  if  we  go  still  farther  back,  there  will  be  no- 
body to  arrest  but  some  thousands  of  stockholders  scat- 
tered over  the  world. 

To  continue  to  complain  of  these  conditions  while  we 
maintain  the  cause  that  makes  them  inevitable  seems  merely 
foolish. 


51 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    STORY   OF    THE    GRAVITY   YARD 

The  switch  engine  had  puffed  laboriously  up  to  the 
top  of  the  hill,  pushing  before  it  a  long  line  of  freight 
cars  of  all  kinds,  box  cars,  yellow  refrigerator  cars,  coal 
cars,  Standard  Oil  cars;  twenty-five  or  thirty,  I  should 
think.  At  the  summit  the  engineer  shut  off  steam,  the 
wheezy  din  gave  over,  and  there  went  along  the  train 
the  diminishing  clank  of  drawheads  as  the  slack  ran  out 
on  the  beginning  of  the  descent  beyond.  The  switching 
boss  alighted  from  the  engine  cab  and  looked  down  the 
line  to  see  if  the  men  were  ready.  Then  he  took  off  his 
hat  and  wiped  his  hot  forehead.  To  me,  watching  with 
keen  interest  a  scene  few  but  railroad  men  ever  witness, 
he  seemed  anxious  and  depressed,  and  as  one  that  at  the 
moment  cared  but  little  for  his  employment.  He  gave 
a  signal,  and  the  engine,  spouting  a  huge  column  of  smoke, 
pushed  forward  a  few  yards.  Then  between  some  of  the 
forward  cars  the  couplings  were  pulled  and  the  cars  began 
of  their  own  weight  to  slide  down  the  hill. 

For  the  next  two  miles  ahead  of  them  the  main  track 
was  joined  at  intervals  by  spurs  leading  to  side  tracks.  The 
descent  was  continuous  but  easy,  though  I  noticed  that  before 
the  cars  had  gone  far  they  had  gathered  momentum  and 
rolled  along  at  a  speed  of  ten  miles  an  hour;  perhaps  more. 

On  the  tops  of  the  cars,  or  in  some  instances  standing 
on  the  bottom  step,  were  several  men — young  men,  sturdy, 
active,  intelligent  looking  young  men.     As  the  separated 

52 


The  Story  of  the  Gravity  Yard 

cars  ran  down  the  incline  the  switches,  quickly  thrown, 
shifted  them  upon  the  side  tracks,  and  thereupon  the  young 
men  worked  the  brake  wheels  to  bring  the  switched  cars 
to  a  standstill.  Often  to  make  the  brake  more  effective 
they  would  thrust  into  the  spokes  of  the  wheel  a  wooden 
lever  (an  ax-handle,  maybe,  or  a  bit  of  sapling)  and  throw 
upon  that  their  whole  weight  and  strength.  Yet  some- 
times the  flight  was  not  wholly  checked,  and  bang!  went 
the  switched  car  into  another  car  that  stood  on  the  siding. 
The  spurs  went  forth  at  rather  wide  angles  to  the  main 
track,  and  when  the  car  struck  the  spur  the  car  always 
lurched  violently.  At  such  times  the  young  men  clung  hard 
to  the  brake  wheel,  that  they  might  not  be  hurled  to  the 
ground.  Because  at  those  places  many  men  before  them 
had  been  so  hurled  to  the  ground  or  between  the  cars,  and 
the  switchmen  knew  well  enough  what  that  meant. 

All  this  was  in  a  place  called  a  "  gravity  yard,"  on  the 
outskirts  of  a  certain  city  and  railroad  center  much  known 
to  fame.  On  the  promise  that  I  would  not  say  what  city 
and  what  gravity  yard,  I  was  admitted  to  view  from  a  point 
of  vantage  the  exact  workings  of  this  most  ingenious  and 
singular  device.  To  be  further  explicit  would  probably  bring 
upon  some  very  good  and  overworked  men  certain  perils  to 
which  they  should  not  be  exposed,  for  to  my  knowledge  they 
have  now  perils  enough.  However,  the  name  of  the  place 
can  be  of  no  moment;  the  gravity  yard  is  the  same  every- 
where; when  I  have  told  of  one  I  have  told  of  all. 

The  purpose  of  a  gravity  yard  is  to  enable  a  freight 
train  to  be  made  up  cheaply  and  quickly.  This  purpose 
it  serves  admirably  in  the  following  manner: 

Here  comes  along  a  freight  train  approaching,  let  us 
say,  Chicago.  It  has  forty  cars  in  it,  cars  picked  up  all 
about  the  West  and  destined  to  places  all  about  the  East. 

53 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

Here  are  cars  billed  to  leave  Chicago  on  every  one  of  a 
dozen  railroads,  but  scattered  through  the  train;  one  for 
the  Michigan  Central,  one  for  the  Lake  Shore,  one  for 
the  Wabash,  another  for  the  Michigan  Central,  one  for  the 
Pennsylvania,  another  for  the  Lake  Shore,  and  so  forth. 

You  have  never  thought  of  it,  but  when  that  train  gets  to 
Chicago,  to  break  it  up  and  distribute  its  cars  is  a  tremen- 
dous task.  There  must  be  a  side  track  for  each  road,  and 
in  the  crowded  city  and  among  the  always  crowded  and 
overcrowded  yards,  how  can  that  be?  Real  estate  is  far 
too  valuable  there  to  be  devoted  to  switching  grounds  of 
the  size  required  if  this  work  is  to  be  done  quickly.  More- 
over, if  the  work  of  breaking  up  the  train  and  putting 
it  together  again,  of  picking  out  each  car  and  depositing 
it  upon  its  proper  siding,  be  undertaken  on  level  tracks 
(as  it  must  be  within  a  terminal  city)  a  switch  engine 
must  make  to  and  fro  a  separate  trip  for  almost  every 
car.  Delay  would  result,  and  very  likely  the  choking  up  of 
the  main  track,  the  interruption  of  traffic,  and  the  wrath  of 
competing  shippers  clamoring  for  the  delivery  of  their  goods. 

So  the  gravity  yard  was  devised  to  save  all  this  trouble. 
They  choose  a  place  for  it  some  miles  from  the  terminal, 
and  construct  the  long  decline,  sometimes  two  or  three 
miles  of  it,  with  spurs  running  from  the  main  track.  Then 
they  let  the  train  (in  pieces)  slide  down  of  its  own  weight, 
and  as  it  goes  along  they  distribute  the  cars  upon  the  proper 
sidings.  Thus  all  the  cars  for  the  Michigan  Central,  let  us 
say,  are  switched  off  upon  side  track  No.  1,  and  all  those 
for  the  Lake  Shore  upon  No.  2,  and  all  those  for  the  city  of 
Chicago  upon  No.  3,  and  so  on.  And  when  the  train  has 
passed  through  the  yard  all  the  cars  have  been  assorted  and 
made  ready  for  instant  and  easy  delivery  in  Chicago.  It  is 
like  a  huge  sieve  or  automatic  separator. 

54 


The  Story  of  the  Gravity  Yard 

Beyond  doubt  this  is  a  grand  device  for  economy  of  time 
and  money;  but  the  economy  is  attained  at  a  price  in 
lives  and  limbs  that  seems  shockingly  high.  Every  sepa- 
rated car  run  through  this  sieve  must  carry  with  it  a 
brakeman;  to  avoid  being  slung  from  the  car  at  the  switch 
or  catapulted  from  it  on  the  side  track  requires  of  the 
brakeman  almost  superhuman  strength,  skill,  and  presence 
of  mind.  He  must  often  apply  the  brake  at  the  same  time 
that  he  is  clinging  to  his  perilous  perch.  But  the  brake 
he  uses  is  of  the  old  hand-wheel  pattern,  and,  since  the 
compulsory  introduction  of  the  air-brake,  the  hand-brake 
has  become  chiefly  a  nominal  thing.  In  many  instances 
it  is  operated  with  the  greatest  difficulty;  in  many  others 
it  cannot  be  operated  at  all.  The  result  is  that  the  car 
flies  around  the  curve  with  undiminished  speed,  and  the 
brakeman  struggling  with  the  useless  apparatus  is  flung 
upon  the  ground  or  the  tracks  to  be  maimed  or  killed. 

I  have  on  my  desk  as  I  write  the  record  of  one  of 
these  terrible  places.  In  thirty-two  days  the  foot  of  one 
man  was  torn  off,  one  man  was  scalped,  two  lost  their  arms, 
three  lost  their  legs,  and  three  were  killed  outright — that 
was  all  that  happened  in  that  particular  yard  in  thirty- 
two  days.  I  have  here  also  a  photograph  of  six  of  these 
victims,  six  young  men  with  their  crutches  and  canes, 
crippled  for  life;  bright,  intelligent  looking  young  men, 
you  would  know  them  instantly  and  anywhere  for  young 
Americans;  young  men  with  good  faces  and  good  heads, 
and  the  stamp  of  the  public  school  upon  them;  the  oldest, 
twenty-two  or  thereabouts,  all  crippled  and  sent  forth  leg- 
less or  armless  into  this  seething  battle  we  call  life. 

Six  of  them.  They  were  working  for  the  railroad  com- 
pany. They  were  performing  with  their  utmost  skill  and 
diligence  a  dangerous  task  that,  in  the  view  of  the  company, 

55 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

must  be  done  by  somebody.  They  had  fallen  in  the  service, 
and  the  power  they  had  served  and  been  maimed  for  had 
thrust  aside  what  remained  of  them  as  no  longer  useful 
to  the  enterprise.  They  were  broken  cogs  removed  from 
the  machine  and  already  forgotten,  for  new  cogs  had  taken 
their  places,  to  be  in  turn  broken  and  cast  aside. 

Such  are  the  facts.  They  are  typical  of  the  gravity 
yard,  and  they  are  typical  of  many  other  phases  of  this 
monstrous  slaughter.  Day  by  day  they  fall  all  around  us, 
the  men  that  make  it  possible  for  us  to  ride  at  ease  and 
so  swiftly.  Of  American  railroad  trainmen  in  1901  one 
in  every  hundred  and  thirty-seven  was  killed,  and  one  in 
every  eleven  was  injured.  To  comprehend  the  hideous  sig- 
nificance of  these  figures  is  almost  impossible.  The  truth  is 
that  railroad  employment  in  the  United  States  is  more 
perilous  than  the  average  soldier's  life  in  war  time;  and  far 
more  cruel.  Of  every  ten  trainmen  at  work  to-day  one  will 
be  killed  or  maimed  within  a  year.  No  figures  are  available, 
but  from  observation  and  general  report  I  am  convinced 
that  the  gravity  yards  fatalities  are  so  much  worse  that  one 
may  say  one  person  in  every  five  employed  therein  is  killed 
or  injured  every  year.  We  have  many  other  fatal  ap- 
pendages upon  our  railroad  management — the  "  permissive 
block,"  the  overworked  employee,  the  boy  operator,  the 
trust-made  defective  rail,  the  "  facing-switch,"  the  rotten 
tie,  and  others,  but  none  of  these  equals  the  gravity  yards 
for  persistent  slaughter.  Nobody  ever  hears  of  these  vic- 
tims ;  they  are  not  printed  in  the  newspapers,  their  names 
are  not  mentioned  in  the  annual  report.  Yet  every  gravity 
yard  is,  in  the  course  of  a  year,  a  place  of  dreadful  death 
and  disaster  to  which  the  railroad  operations  of  all  the  rest 
of  the  world  can  furnish  no  parallel. 

Another   undesirable   peculiarity   of  the   American   rail- 

56 


The  Story  of.  the  Gravity  Yard 

road  system,  and  responsible  for  much  of  the  great  death 
record,  was  pointed  out  in  1904  by  Hoff  and  Schwaback, 
German  railroad  experts,  though  I  think  very  little  atten- 
tion has  ever  been  paid  to  the  matter  here.  It  appears 
that,  compared  with  European  countries,  our  rails  are  in- 
adequately watched.     Thus  Hoff  and  Schwaback  declared: 

The  saving  in  expenses  which  the  American  railroads  effect 
through  diminished  watching  of  the  rails  is  extraordinary.  In  the 
United  States  only  49,961  persons  are  engaged  in  watching  the 
lines  and  guarding  crossings.  If  the  United  States  had  propor- 
tionately the  same  number  as  are  thus  employed  in  the  Prussian 
system  the  figures  would  be  636,000,  an  increase  of  586,000,  which 
is  greater  by  356,174  than  the  total  number  of  employees  in  the 
Prussian  system. 

Then  one  need  not  wonder  that,  proportionately,  the 
death  lists  among  our  railroad  men  lead  the  entire  world. 
Here  are  some  comparative  figures  from  the  records  *  in 
the  office  of  the  Inter-State  Commerce  Commission: 

THE  SLAUGHTER  OF  RAILROAD  EMPLOYEES 
In    Great    Britain 

Employees  Employees  Proportion                Proportion 

Year                   killed  injured                      killed                        injured 

1895 489  7,480                  1  in  951 

1896 490  14,110                  1  in  949 

1897 566  14,402                  1  in  821 

1898 542  12,979                  1  in  985 

1899 584  15,582                  1  in  914 

1900 631  15,698                  1  in  946 

1901 565  14,740                 1  in  1019 

1902 485  13,858                   1  in  1187 

1903 497  14,356                  1  in  1158 

1904 448  14,561                   1  in  1298 

1905 437  14,335                  1  in  1331 

1906 483  16,256                   1  in  1204 

1907 479  21,514                  1  in  1297 

1908 332  24,181                  1  in  1871 

♦Compiled  by  Mr.  Leroy  S.  Boyd,  the  librarian.  Mr.  Boyd's 
tables  on  this  subject  are  not  only  the  best  in  the  world,  but  the 
only  tables  that  give  complete  and  trustworthy  data. 

57 


1 

n  62 

1 

n  32 

1 

n  32 

1 

n  41 

1 

n  34 

1 

n  34 

1 

n  39 

1 

n  41 

1 

n  40 

1 

in  39 

1 

in  39 

1 

n  35 

1 

n  28 

1 

n  25 

Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

In  the  United  States 


Employees 
Year  killed 

1895 1,811 

1896 1,861 

1897 1,693 

1898 1,958 

1899 2,210 

1900 2,550 

1901....  ...  2,675 

1902 2,969 

1903 3,606 

1904 3,632 

1905 3,361 

1906 3,929 

1907 4,534 

1908 3,470 


Employees 
injured 

25,696 
29,969 
27,667 
31,761 
34,923 
39,643 
41,142 
50,524 
60,481 
67,067 
66,833 
76,701 
87,644 
83,367 


Proportion 
killed 


n  433 
n  444 
n  486 
n  447 
n  420 
n  339 
n  400 
n  401 
n  364 
in  357 
n  411 
n  387 
n  368 
n  420 


Proportion 
injured 

1  in  31 

in  28 
in  30 
in  28 
in  27 
26 
in  26 
in  24 
in  22 
in  19 
in  20 
in  19 
in  19 
in  17 


Therefore,  while  in  Great  Britain  the  life  of  the  rail- 
road worker  seems  to  become  safer,  in  the  United  States 
it  steadily  becomes  more  perilous. 

These  80,000  soldiers  of  our  industrial  army  thus 
stricken  every  year — what  becomes  of  them?  Invariably 
they  are  poor  men,  very  poor;  for  the  most  part  they 
are  now  not  only  very  poor,  but  incapacitated  for  earning 
their  living.  What  becomes  of  them  and  what  care  do 
we  take  of  the  men  that  fall  thus  in  our  behalf? 

Practically  we  take  no  care  of  them.  Some  of  the  rail- 
roads maintain  sick  benefit  or  accident  funds,  from  which 
a  measure  of  relief  may  be  obtained.  In  order  to  secure 
this  relief  the  employee  must  contribute  from  his  wages  a 
monthly  sum  fixed  by  the  company.  Should  he  change 
his  employment  he  commonly  loses  what  he  has  paid. 
The  control  of  the  fund  is  solely  in  the  hands  of  the 
officers  of  the  company;  they  decide  how  much  shall  be 
paid  in  the  event  of  an  accident.  As  a  rule,  the  extent 
of  the  employee's  participation  in  the  control  of  the  fund 
is  his  enforced  monthly  payments.     He  gets  what  certain 

58 


The  Story  of  the  Gravity  Yard 

officers  of  the  company  are  pleased  to  allot  him  from  his 
own  and  others'  accumulated  savings,  and  so  long  as  these 
officers  are  pleased  to  let  him  have  it.  How  these  savings 
of  his  are  invested,  whether  they  are  well  or  ill  managed, 
whether  he  and  his  fellows  reap  from  the  fund  as  much 
benefit  as  might  otherwise  be  secured  for  them,  he  does 
not  know.  All  he  knows  is  that  month  by  month  some- 
thing is  taken  from  his  wages,  and  if  he  lose  a  leg  or  an 
arm,  something  is  paid  to  him  until  the  stump  heals  up. 
Whereupon  he  shifts  for  himself. 

On  railroads  where  there  are  no  accident  funds  he  shifts 
for  himself  from  the  start. 

This  is  a  plain  statement  of  practical  conditions.  Of 
course,  nominally  things  are  very  different.  Nominally 
the  law  provides  remedies  and  compensations  for  those  that 
suffer  in  accidents.  Nominally  the  railroad  employee  that 
loses  a  leg  or  an  arm  can  bring  his  case  before  a  jury, 
and,  on  proving  his  injury,  receive  a  judgment  that  the 
company,  his   employer,   must  pay   to  him. 

But  in  practice  this  is  not  so.  One  of  the  conditions 
of  the  accident  relief  fund,  as  it  exists  on  our  railroads, 
is  that,  before  an  injured  person  can  partake  of  its  benefits, 
he  must  release  the  employing  company  from  all  legal 
responsibility  for  his  injury.  Hence,  he  is  offered  the 
choice  between  immediate  though  inadequate  assistance  and 
a  long,  costly,  and  doubtful  contest  in  the  courts,  pending 
which  he  shall  be  without  funds.  This,  of  course,  is  no 
choice  at  all;  it  is  coercion,  with  pistol  at  your  head. 

How  barren,  how  long,  costly,  and  doubtful  the  legal 
fight  would  probably  be  can  be  estimated  by  anyone  that 
will  take  the  trouble  to  reflect  upon  our  methods  of  litiga- 
tion. In  many  of  the  States  any  action  for  accident  dam- 
ages   is    enormously    complicated    with    the    "  contributory 

59 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

negligence  "  and  "  fellow  workmen  "  phases  of  the  statutes. 
An  injured  man  cannot  recover  if  it  can  be  shown  that 
he  did  not  take  all  necessary  precautions  for  his  own 
safety,  and  he  cannot  recover  if  it  can  be  shown  that  his 
doing  of  a  hazardous  thing  was  on  the  instruction  or  in- 
stance of  another  employee.  These  barriers  narrowly  wall 
in  the  actions  that  the  injured  may  bring,  because  there 
are  not  many  accidents  in  which  one  or  the  other  con- 
dition cannot  be  shown.  Then  the  cause  is  always  liable 
to  the  widespread  and  subtle  power  of  the  corporation,  to 
the  attacks  of  clever  lawyers,  to  the  idiosyncrasies  of  juries 
and  the  peculiar  charges  of  corporation-made  judges;  and, 
above  all,  it  is  subject  to  the  abominable  delay  that  makes 
our  court  proceedings  so  pathetically  absurd.  In  most 
parts  of  this  country  an  injured  man  must  wait  from  six 
months  to  two  years  from  the  instituting  of  his  suit  to 
its  first  trial,  with  the  comfortable  knowledge  that  if  he 
wins  the  case  will  be  appealed,  and  that  from  two  to  five 
more  years  will  be  consumed  in  waiting  for  the  decision 
of  the  appeals.  Whereupon  the  whole  case  may  be  ordered 
to  a  retrial  in  the  first  court  after  a  lapse  of  time  in  which 
memories  have  grown  dim  and  witnesses  moved  away  or 
died.  When  a  prominent  lawyer  of  Chicago  declared  not 
long  ago  that,  under  the  court  methods  of  Illinois,  he 
would  guarantee  to  keep  any  man  for  fourteen  years  out 
of  his  rights,  no  matter  how  clear  his  case  and  just  his 
cause,  he  did  not  overstate  the  existing  conditions. 

In  Germany,  the  care  of  the  injured  and  of  the  sick 
among  all  men  that  labor  is  not  left  to  chance  nor  caprice 
nor  good  luck,  but  is  carefully  and  minutely  provided  for 
by  the  Government.  For  all  men  that  incur  injury  at 
their  vocations  there  must  be  adequate  compensation — and 
support.     That  is  the  fundamental  doctrine.     It  has  been 

60 


The  Story  of  the  Gravity  Yard 

worked  out  into  Accident  Relief,  Sick  Relief,  Invalid  Pen- 
sions, and  Old  Age  Pensions,  all  under  the  care  of  the 
Imperial  Government,  which  maintains  a  vast  department 
to  direct  these  enterprises,  and  annually  expends  through 
them  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars.  I  should  like  to 
describe  all  the  operations  of  this  department,  because  it 
is  a  great  and  memorable  object  lesson  in  practical  benefi- 
cence; but  what  comes  home  most  sharply  to  us  (in  view 
of  the  American  accident  figures)  is  the  part  that  relates 
to  the  care  of  injured  workmen  on  the  German  railroads. 

Out  West  I  once  knew  a  freight  conductor  that  was  a 
sober,  decent  man  of  family;  one  night  the  engineer  of 
his  train  misunderstood  the  dispatcher's  orders  and 
plunged  into  a  head-on  collision.  The  conductor  was 
caught  between  two  cars  and  lost  an  arm  and  a  leg.  When 
he  got  well  there  was  next  to  nothing  he  could  do  in 
his  crippled  state,  and  the  railroad  company  was  esteemed 
gracious  and  kind  when  it  allowed  him  to  be  a  crossing 
flagman  at  $30  a  month.  I  don't  know  what  perverted 
views  we  had  then  about  responsibility,  but  we  all  thought 
it  was  good  of  the  company,  and  the  man  thought  so,  too, 
and  refused  the  kind  offers  of  various  attorneys  to  bring 
suit.  After  some  years  the  company  was  compelled  (very 
tardily)  to  elevate  its  track  at  this  particular  place,  and 
had  no  more  use  for  the  flagman  there.  So  the  flagman 
made  his  way  to  the  river,  preferring  that  to  the  poor- 
house. 

Every  man  that  has  intimately  observed  railroad  matters 
knows  of  such  cases;  indeed,  once  in  this  country  we 
scarcely  knew  of  anything  else.  Yet  it  is  not  really  nec- 
essary to  conduct  a  railroad  as  a  shambles,  nor  to  regard 
injured  railroad  men  with  less  concern  than  we  have  for 
injured  cattle.     It  is  quite  possible  to  be  decent  and  still 

61 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

maintain  an  efficient  transportation  system.  In  Germany, 
for  instance,  the  maimed  railroad  employee  is  invariably 
held  to  be  the  patient  and  care  of  the  public;  he  has  been 
injured  in  the  service  of  the  community,  and  the  state, 
which  operates  the  railroads  for  the  community's  benefit, 
proceeds  at  once  to  the  relief  of  the  fallen  public  servant. 
And  for  many  reasons  that  seems  to  be  wise  policy. 

All  the  processes  in  this  relief  are  wonderfully  direct, 
simple,  and  speedy.  No  court  proceedings  are  ever  nec- 
essary, no  summons  and  complaint,  no  lawyers,  no  trials, 
no  juries,  no  witnesses.  Contributory  negligence  has  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  matter;  neither  have  fellow  servant 
clauses.  The  accident  is  certified  by  the  local  railroad 
authorities  and  the  physician  of  the  railroad  department. 
Then  from  a  fund  provided  by  the  State  for  the  purpose, 
and  accessible  without  courts  and  without  delays,  the  Gov- 
ernment's great  insurance  department  begins  to  pay  an  in- 
demnity that  is  continued  so  long  as  the  injury  lasts,  no 
matter  how  long  that  may  be,  and  calculated  on  the  fixed 
basis  of  a  percentage  of  the  man's  wages.  Here  is  a 
table  used  in  calculating  these  indemnities: 

PERCENTAGES    OF    WAGES    PAID    BY    THE    GERMAN 

GOVERNMENT    FOR    INJURY    IN    THE    RAILROAD 

SERVICE 


Eyes 

Arms 

Hands 

Thumb 

Index 
Finger 

Middle 

Finger 

Right   .. 
Left    .  .  , 
Both    ,  , 

...  33i 
...  33£ 
.  .    100 

66|-80 
60-70 
100 

60-80 
50-66f 
100 

20-33 
10-15 

15-33| 
10-12 

10-15 
8-10 

Ring 
Finger 

Little 
Finger 

Four 
Fingers 

Legs 

Lower 
Leg 

Great 
Toe 

Right  .. 
Left   ... 
Both  ... 

..   10-12 
. .     8-10 

6-10 
6-10 

50-20 
40-50 

55-75 
55-75 
90-100 

50-66| 
50-66f 
80-90 

6-10 
6-10 

62 


The  Story  of  the  Gravity  Yard 

Similar  bases  exist  for  internal  and  other  injuries. 

These  indemnities  are  paid  for  life  by  the  Government 
voluntarily,  and  without  other  action  by  the  injured  man 
than  the  filing  of  an  application. 

As  I  have  said,  the  physicians  attached  to  the  railroad 
service  certify,  after  an  examination,  to  the  extent  of  the 
injury.  Some  of  the  "  remarks  "  on  the  official  circular 
to  these  physicians  are  interesting.     Thus: 

1.  Arms. — In  case  of  injury  to  the  arms  you  must  consider 
whether  the  arms  can  be  raised  to  a  horizontal  position,  or  beyond. 

2.  Hands. — In  the  case  of  a  left-handed  person,  the  percentages 
must  be  reversed. 

3.  Fingers. — You  must  note  especially  whether  finger  stumps 
can  be  used  in  whole  or  in  part;  whether  patient  can  grasp  any- 
thing. Any  exceeding  stiffness  is  also  to  be  noted.  As,  for  in- 
stance, can  the  patient  lift  tools? 

4.  In  case  there  has  been  a  former  injury,  has  the  present  acci- 
dent increased  it?    Has  there  been  any  illness  or  breakdown? 

These  are  mere  specimens  of  the  minute  inquiries  the 
physician  must  answer.  But  once  answered  and  the  answer 
filed,  there  is  an  end  of  the  matter.  The  indemnity  is  paid 
until  the  man  dies. 

All  this  is  subsequent  to  the  first  relief.  From  the 
scene  of  the  accident  the  Government  removes  the  man 
to  the  hospital,  provides  him  with  medical  attendance, 
nurses,  and  medicines  until  he  is  discharged;  and  mean- 
while applies  his  indemnity  to  his  family. 

In  the  case  of  a  fatal  accident  to  a  railroad  employee 
a  pension  is  paid  to  his  widow  and  his  minor  children,  and 
should  the  widow  remarry  she  receives  a  lump  sum  in 
quittance  of  further  claims.  But  the  children  continue  to 
be  pensioned  until  they  become  of  age. 

63 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

Sickness  not  resulting  from  accidents  is  relieved  among 
the  railroad  men  by  the  operation  of  the  Workingmen's 
Sick  Fund,  which  is  contributed  by  the  employed,  the  em- 
ployers, and  the  Government.  Old  Age  Pensions  are  pro- 
vided by  compulsory  insurance  of  all  persons  in  receipt  of 
less  than  $500  a  year  income. 

The  railroad  men  are  only  a  small  part  of  the  vast 
army  of  German  workingmen  and  women,  numbering  close 
to  20,000,000  persons,  that  are  by  their  Government  pro- 
vided with  insurance  against  misfortune  and  old  age,  in 
all  the  world  the  most  conspicuous  and  extensive  scheme 
of  government  insurance.  The  annual  receipts  of  the 
Workingmen's  Sick  Benefit  Fund  amount  to  more  than 
$50,000,000,  of  the  Accident  Insurance  Fund  to  more  than 
$40,000,000,  of  the  Invalidity  Insurance  to  more  than 
$50,000,000.  It  is  the  conviction  of  all  the  German  writers 
upon  these  subjects  that  the  existence  of  these  funds  has 
not  only  furthered  the  national  strength,  vigor,  and  happi- 
ness, but  has  tended  to  diminish  accidents  and  to  increase 
the  safety  of  the  public. 

When  Emperor  William  I.,  on  May  17th,  1881,  sent 
a  message  to  the  German  Reichstag  requesting  a  national 
system  of  indemnity  and  insurance,  he  said: 


We  consider  it  our  imperial  duty  to  impress  upon  the  Reichstag 
the  necessity  of  furthering  the  welfare  of  the  working  people. 
We  should  review  with  increased  satisfaction  the  manifold  suc- 
cesses with  which  the  Lord  has  blessed  our  reign  could  we  carry 
with  us  to  the  grave  the  consciousness  of  having  given  our  country 
an  additional  and  lasting  assurance  of  internal  peace,  and  the  con- 
viction that  we  have  rendered  the  needy  that  assistance  to  which 
they  are  justly  entitled.  Our  efforts  in  this  direction  are  certain 
of  the  approval  of  all  the  federate  governments,  and  we  con- 
fidently rely  on  the  support  of  the  Reichstag  without  distinction  of 

64 


The  Story  of  the  Gravity  Yard 

parties.  In  order  to  realize  these  views  a  bill  for  the  insurance 
of  workingmen  against  industrial  accidents  will,  first  of  all,  be 
laid  before  you,  after  which  a  supplementary  measure  will  be 
submitted  providing  for  a  general  organization  of  industrial  sick 
relief  insurance.  But  likewise  those  that  are  disabled  in  con- 
sequence of  old  age  or  invalidity  possess  a  well-founded  claim 
to  a  more  ample  relief  on  the  part  of  the  State  than  they  have 
hitherto  enjoyed.  To  devise  the  fittest  ways  and  means  for  mak- 
ing such  provision,  however  difficult,  is  one  of  the  highest  obliga- 
tions of  every  community,  based  on  the  moral  foundations  of 
Christianity.  A  more  intimate  connection  with  the  actual  capabili- 
ties of  the  people,  and  a  mode  of  turning  these  to  account  in 
corporate  associations,  under  the  patronage  and  with  the  aid  of 
the  State,  will,  we  trust,  develop  a  scheme  to  solve  problems  for 
which  the  State  alone  would  prove  unequal. 


Good  words !  And  the  Emperor  is  commonly  referred  to 
as  the  father  of  the  gigantic  Government  insurance  organi- 
zation that  has  revolutionized  life  among  the  wage-earners 
of  Germany  and  contributed  much  to  the  sum  of  happi- 
ness there.  But,  of  course,  the  real  author  of  the  scheme 
was  not  the  Emperor.  It  was  suggested  by  the  sagacious 
and  adroit  Bismarck,  and  its  origin,  source,  and  impetus 
alike  came  from  the  first  manifestation  of  the  German 
Socialist  movement. 

The  Socialists  appealed  to  the  workingmen  with  the 
plain  and  unquestionable  statement  that  whereas  the  work- 
ingmen created  all  the  wealth  they  received  but  a  trifling 
share  of  the  wealth  they  created,  and  it  was  because  of 
this  unjust  division  of  the  products  of  their  industry  that 
they  had  toil  and  hardship  in  the  days  of  their  strength, 
and  penury  in  their  old  age.  To  this  argument  there  is 
obviously  no  answer  except  that  the  condition  it  states  is 
inseparable  from  the  present  organization  of  society,  and 
to  change  it  would  require  a  rearrangement  of  the  whole 

65 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

industrial  system.  To  make  these  changes  men  are  every- 
where loath;  they  have  always  endured,  they  come  slowly 
to  the  notion  that  they  need  not  endure.  Yet  the  case 
is  so  simple  that  in  Germany  men  were  showing  a  dis- 
position to  weary  of  endurance,  naturally  most  disturbing 
to  a  ruler  whose  rule  is  founded  solely  on  surviving  feu- 
dalism. Bismarck,  therefore,  undertook  to  quiet  the  grow- 
ing unrest,  head  off  the  inquiring  spirit,  and  preserve  the 
system  by  providing  pensions  for  the  aged  and  indemnity 
for  injured  workmen.  In  which,  of  course,  he  was  un- 
doubtedly most  wise. 

Since  then  his  example  has  been  followed  by  other  gov- 
ernments that  for  similar  reasons  have  interested  them- 
selves in  alleviating  the  condition  of  its  wealth  producers. 
But  what  struck  me  into  amazement,  when  I  came  to  look 
into  the  subject,  was  that  no  such  movement  was  dis- 
cernible in  the  United  States,  and  that  the  average  labor 
laws  in  the  United  States  were  the  crudest,  the  most  archaic, 
and  the  least  effective  to  be  found  in  the  civilized  world. 
I  found  that  in  most  industries  the  workers  were  in  the 
same  situation  as  the  railroad  employees.  They  were  un- 
protected while  they  worked,  and  unable  to  recover  in- 
demnity when  they  were  injured.  Most  of  the  perils  to 
which  they  were  exposed  were  to  be  obviated  readily 
enough  by  the  proper  devices:  just  as  it  was  not  necessary 
to  distribute  freight  cars  with  a  gravity  yard,  it  was  not 
necessary  to  expose  woodworkers  to  unprotected  saws  and 
all  kinds  of  workingmen  and  workingwomen  to  the  perils 
of  unprotected  bands,  wheels,  elevators,  drills,  and  presses 
from  which  they  were  everywhere  in  danger.  I  found 
that  the  reason  for  our  bad  eminence  in  these  respects  was 
merely  that  here  we  had  carried  a  trifle  farther  than  other 
countries   the   theory   of   Individualism,   and   the   spirit   of 

66 


The  Story  of  the  Gravity  Yard 

competition,  which  is  also  the  spirit  of  cruelty  and  avarice. 
The  maimed  victim  of  the  gravity  yard  and  the  sorry 
wrecks  in  a  county  poorhouse  were  alike  living  monuments 
to  one  system  that  hardens  men's  hearts  and  ruins  their 
lives. 


67 


CHAPTER   V 

THE    SUICIDE    SLIP    FROM    RIVINGTON    STREET 

In  New  York  City  all  unusual  occurrences  reported  at 
the  precinct  station-houses  are  telegraphed  thence  to  Po- 
lice Headquarters  in  Mulberry  Street.  If  they  are  not 
robberies,  burglaries,  or  the  like,  very  curt  statements  of 
the  events  are  written  by  the  operators  and  hung  in  a 
glass  frame  in  the  basement  of  the  headquarters'  building. 
These  "  slips  "  are  for  the  information  of  the  newspaper 
reporters,  whose  offices  are  across  the  street. 

One  Sunday  in  1886,  when  I  was  a  reporter  assigned  to 
duty  at  Police  Headquarters,  there  came  in  a  "  slip  "  an- 
nouncing the  suicide  of  some  man  with  a  very  foreign 
name  "  in  the  rear  of  No.  —  Rivington  Street."  In  those 
days,  when  police  news  received  much  more  attention  than 
it  receives  now,  each  reporter  was  provided  with  a  copy 
boy,  and  as  every  copy  boy  was  in  active  training  to  be 
a  reporter,  it  was  customary  to  allow  the  copy  boy  to 
investigate  the  trivial  slips  and  for  the  reporter  to  reserve 
himself  for  important  stories.  It  may  be  regarded  as 
some  sign  of  the  times  that  the  suicides  of  persons  with 
foreign  names  residing  in  the  tenement  house  regions  of 
the  East  Side  were  classed  as  trivial  and  left  to  the  copy 
boys.  In  this  instance  both  the  name  and  the  locality  (a 
rear  tenement  in  one  of  the  worst  streets  of  the  East  Side) 
indicated  a  commonplace  story  not  worth  recording.  But 
the  day  had  been  very  dull,   I  had  idled  for  hours  over 

68 


The  Suicide  Slip  from  Rivington  Street 

the  vacuous  Sunday  papers,  there  was  a  chance  to  drag 
out  a  story  from  almost  any  event,  and  after  being  for  a 
time  in  two  minds,  I  stretched  out  on  the  assignment 
myself. 

It  was  a  beautiful  day  in  the  early  fall,  a  Sunday  hush 
even  on  the  Bowery,  the  air  sweet  and  full  of  mild 
sunshine,  the  sky  very  blue,  and  all  things  in  nature 
handsome;  so  that  it  seemed  to  me  the  hideous  buildings 
lining  the  streets  were  by  contrast  more  obtrusively  hideous 
than  ever.  I  had  walked  through  the  Park  early  that 
morning,  and  possibly  after  the  cool  greenery  these  piled- 
up  horrors  struck  home  too  sharply.  At  any  rate,  I  re- 
member forming  the  conclusion  that  only  gray  skies  and 
lowering  weather  were  appropriate  for  such  gloomy  regions, 
for  the  sunshine  did  but  bring  out  stains  of  dust  and 
rust  and  make  the  filth  and  neglect  the  more  prominent, 
until  all  the  works  of  man  seemed  to  be  shaking  fists 
in  the  face  of  Heaven.  Rows  of  repulsive  houses  were 
accoutered  with  fire  escapes,  and  each  fire  escape  bore 
disorderly  bundles  of  bedding  that  the  housewives  had 
thrust  out  to  lie  in  the  sunlight.  The  sidewalks  were  thickly 
littered,  as  they  always  are  in  that  part  of  the  city ;  every 
conceivable  sort  of  dirt  that  could  offend  the  eye  or  the 
nostril  was  scattered  about;  the  roadway  was  (as  usual) 
a  conglomerate  of  filth.  Even  in  those  days  the  East  Side 
was  one  of  the  most  unsightly  spots  on  earth;  and  the 
swarms  of  children  in  the  street,  to  whose  childhood  such 
environments  were  the  only  background,  seemed  likely  to 
start  unpleasant  musings  in  any  mind  that  cared  to  con- 
sider the  generations  to  come. 

I  came  to  the  number  in  Rivington  Street  mentioned 
by  the  slip,  and  went  through  a  kind  of  tunnel  to  the 
dark  little  court  behind  (surrounded  with  sanitation  sheds 

69 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

and  reeking  with  foul  air),  upon  which  the  rear  tenement 
opened.  The  aspect  of  everything  was  forlorn  and  miser- 
able; I  remember  that  even  I,  by  this  time  fairly  well 
accustomed  to  East  Side  squalor,  was  depressed  with  what 
I  saw.  Dirty  water  from  washtubs  or  sinks  had  been 
poured  on  the  stones  of  that  court,  and  in  this  water 
slopped  and  played  a  horde  of  ragged  children;  for  this 
and  similar  places  were  their  only  playground.  The  doors 
of  some  of  the  sanitation  sheds  gaped  indecently  open; 
one  was  puzzled  to  think  how  human  beings  could  endure 
the  gases  that  flowed  out.  In  the  rear  tenement  the  door- 
way was  crusted  with  dirt,  the  floor  of  the  hall  was  so 
rotten  it  threatened  to  give  way  under  the  little  knot  of 
people  that  had  been  drawn  thither  by  the  tragedy  in 
the  house,  common  enough  on  the  slips,  but,  it  seemed, 
always  of  a  fascinating  horror  to  the  people  about.  Among 
these  stood  a  policeman  to  keep  order.  I  went  upstairs. 
The  dead  man  and  his  family  had  occupied  one  stinking 
room  in  the  back  or  darkest  part  of  that  stinking  house. 
His  body  now  lay  on  the  floor;  the  policeman  on  the  beat 
had  cut  him  down,  hanging  there  from  that  hook.  In  a 
corner  was  the  hysterical  widow,  and  by  her  side,  a  hand 
on  her  shoulder,  speaking  to  her  in  a  soothing,  fatherly 
way,  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  old  men  I  had  ever 
seen.  In  after  years,  when  I  came  to  see  Israel's  "  Jewish 
Peddler,"  I  recognized  something  of  the  racial  traits  that 
now  attracted  my  close  attention,  only  this  man  was  much 
finer  than  Israel's  study.  He  was  picturesque  and 
patriarchal ;  he  had  a  long,  full  gray  beard,  a  fine  melodi- 
ous voice,  and  from  his  gentle  brown  eyes  looked  intelligence 
and  character  as  well  as  sympathy.  He  was  talking  in 
German  to  the  woman,  and  I  caught  the  phrase  many  times 
repeated,  "  God  is  good." 

70 


The  Suicide  Slip  from  Rivington  Street 

But  about  the  suicide.  He  was  forty  years  old,  or  there- 
abouts, one  Lohwasser,  a  commonplace  looking  man,  his 
hands  hardened  and  his  face  twisted  with  toil.  At  noon 
he  had  sent  everybody  out  of  the  room,  except,  of  course, 
the  baby  there,  that  lay  on  the  floor  staring  at  the  ceiling. 
Then  he  had  hanged  himself  with  this  bit  of  rope  to  that 
hook  you  see  there.  They  found  him  so  when  they  came 
back,  the  wife  there  and  the  children.  What  was  his 
trade?  Tailor.  Out  of  work?  Of  course,  naturally.  Does 
one  hang  oneself  if  one  has  work?  How  long?  Six  months 
— no,  four.  He  had  had  piecework  from  Johannsen's,  but 
it  had  not  lasted.  The  neighbors  had  wondered  how  they 
lived:  only  Tilly  to  earn  anything,  and  she  had  been  in 
a  skirt  shop  and  had  lost  her  job.  There  were  four  children, 
including  the  baby;  everybody  wondered  what  they  would 
do  now,  as  if  even  a  workless  man  were  still  a  bulwark 
against  misfortune. 

All  this  was  no  story  for  me,  of  course;  nobody  wanted 
to  read  about  a  poor  devil  of  a  tailor  that  had  killed  him- 
self because  in  the  whole  great  city  he  could  not  find  work 
to  do;  besides,  it  was  too  common,  like  the  tenement  house 
fires  and  the  children  that  were  run  over  in  the  streets. 
But  the  man  that  had  the  next  stinking  room  took  me  aside 
and  said  I  hadn't  heard  all;  there  was  something  more, 
and  he  was  the  only  one  that  knew  it,  because  he  lived 
in  the  next  stinking  room  and  through  the  thin  partitions 
he  could  hear  what  the  Lohwassers  were  saying,  and  it 
was  all  about  Tilly.  Tilly  had  gone— well,  of  course,  I 
knew  how  the  girls  went.  The  truth  was,  Tilly,  as  one 
might  say — well,  Tilly  wasn't  a  good  girl  any  more.  She 
was  on  the  streets — that  was  the  truth  of  the  matter. 
She  had  gone  to  the  bad.  And  Sam  there  had  threatened 
to  kill  her,  and  finally  she  had  gone  away  and  said  she 

71 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

would  never  come  back.  And  then  Sam  there  had  done 
this  thing.  One  knew  something  was  going  to  happen, 
but  what  could  one  do?  After  all,  he  needn't  have  taken 
on  so.     Lots  of  girls  took  to  the  streets. 

That  was  all,  and  it  was  not  really  very  much.  I 
might  almost  as  well  have  let  the  copy  boy  come.  But 
there  was  the  old  man  still,  and  he  certainly  was  a  fas- 
cinating study.  I  made  a  point  of  talking  with  him,  and 
was  delighted  to  find  that  to  my  advances  he  responded 
with  a  fine  old-world  courtesy.  He  had  invited  the  afflicted 
Lohwassers  into  his  own  apartments  for  supper,  and  like- 
wise for  shelter  against  the  curious,  and  he  asked  me  to 
step  in  with  them.  He  and  the  family  he  headed  lived 
in  two  little  rooms  at  the  top  of  the  house.  There  was 
his  son's  wife  and  the  grandchildren — Julius,  who  was  a 
cripple,  and  five  girls.  Julius  was  ten  years  old.  He  sold 
newspapers,  and  had  fallen  under  the  wheels  in  jumping 
from  a  street  car,  and  so  he  had  lost  a  leg.  But  he  got 
around  very  well  on  a  crutch  and  could  still  sell  news- 
papers, and  they  thanked  God  for  His  goodness;  Julius 
might  have  been  killed.  The  two  rooms  were  painfully 
bare,  and  the  refreshment  offered  to  the  afflicted  Loh- 
wassers and  to  me  was  but  sorry;  yet  the  place  was  clean, 
and  the  children  were  washed  and  had  whole  if  much 
mended  attire.  It  appeared  that  this  fine  old  patriarch, 
whose  face  looked  like  the  head  of  a  prophet  painted  by 
Guido  Reni,  was  likewise  a  tailor,  and  likewise  was  some- 
times out  of  work.  Just  now  he  had  a  job,  God  be  thanked, 
in  an  Allen  Street  sweatshop.  Bertha,  here,  the  oldest 
girl  (strikingly  pretty,  as  is  often  the  case  with  her  kind), 
worked  in  a  department  store  and  made  $4  a  week,  and 
Julius  sometimes  made  twenty  cents  in  a  day  from  his 
papers.     It  was  hard  for  him  to  get  about  with  his  crutch, 

72 


The  Suicide  Slip  from  Rivington  Street 

but  he  did  well  and  he  was  a  good  boy,  and  with  tears 
in  his  eyes  old  Mr.  Rubenstein,  the  patriarch,  thanked 
God  for  his  grandchildren.  I  knew  some  places  in  Europe 
that  he  knew;  his  youth  in  a  Bavarian  village  was  a  dear 
recollection  to  him,  and  I  suppose  that  he  took  a  fancy  to 
me  because  I  could  talk  with  him  about  a  scene  that  must 
have  been  the  theater  of  most  of  his  thoughts.  At  least  he 
dealt  with  me  almost  at  once  in  a  spirit  of  simple  and  en- 
gaging candor.  His  life,  it  appeared,  had  been  full  of 
vicissitude.  The  death  of  his  parents  had  driven  him 
penniless  into  the  world  when  he  was  little  more  than  a  boy, 
and  he  had  wandered  much,  with  experiences  that  might 
have  hardened  one  of  coarser  fiber,  but  in  his  case  served 
only  to  broaden  and  to  soften.  He  had  been  no  favorite 
of  fortune,  and  it  was  not  until  some  years  had  passed  that 
he  felt  able  to  go  back  to  his  village  and  marry  the  little 
girl  with  whom  he  used  to  play  and  to  whom  he  had  been 
faithful  in  his  wanderings.  And  then  she  had  died  in  giv- 
ing birth  to  their  son.  The  son  grew  up  a  fine  young  man ; 
but  he  too  had  died  leaving  an  invalid  wife  and  these  chil- 
dren, the  best  children  in  the  world,  he  thanked  God — who 
was  always  good. 

I  used  to  see  Julius  sometimes  in  the  street  on  my  way 
to  or  from  some  East  Side  station-house — Union  Market 
may  be,  or  Delancey  Street.  He  was  usually  of  an  after- 
noon stumping  along  the  south  side  of  Rivington,  between 
Eldridge  and  Allen,  his  papers  under  his  arm.  If  I  had 
the  time  I  stopped  for  a  word  with  him,  for  his  cheerful- 
ness in  his  misfortune  and  some  look  of  his  grandfather 
in  his  eyes  were  attractive  to  me.  He  told  me  that  Tilly 
Lohwasser  had  heard  about  her  father's  death  and  had 
come  in  very  white  to  see  the  body,  and  her  mother  had 
upbraided  her  until  she  ran  from  the  house,  and  everyone 

73 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

in  the  block  knew  her  story,  and  that  she  had  gone  to 
live  in  a  notorious  resort  in  Second  Avenue.  His  grand- 
father was  out  of  work  again;  the  sweatshop  had  failed, 
or  as  Julius  expressed  it,  "  gone  bust."  I  did  not  know 
that  sweatshops  ever  failed,  and  was  interested  in  the 
news.  But  he  said  that  Bertha  was  still  at  work,  and 
all  were  well  at  home.  His  grandfather  was  out  every 
day  looking  for  work;  there  wasn't  much  doing  in  the 
tailoring  way;  but  he  had  peddled  iron  pots  and  skillets 
for  a  man  in  Pitt  Street  and  made  a  few  dimes  that  way, 
and  a  man  that  had  two  push-carts,  a  rich  man  that  lived 
in  the  front  tenement,  had  promised  to  let  his  grandfather 
circulate  one  of  them  for  two-thirds  of  the  profits,  so  they 
had  good  hopes. 

The  next  time  I  saw  him  he  said  that  the  rich  man 
had  sold  the  push-cart,  so  his  grandfather  had  been  dis- 
appointed of  that  line  of  business,  but  he  was  peddling 
iron  pots  and  skillets  again.  Julius  could  not  help  think- 
ing it  strange,  but  almost  nobody  seemed  to  want  any  iron 
pots  or  skillets.  His  grandfather  used  to  tramp  from 
Rivington  Street  to  Harlem,  and  some  days  sell  only  one 
iron  pot,  and  it  was  a  heavy  load  for  a  man  of  his  years 
to  carry  on  his  back.  Once,  Julius  said,  the  old  man  had 
fainted  in  the  street;  he  guessed  because  he  was  hungry 
as  well  as  tired.  Julius  wanted  to  know  if  I  would  stop 
in  some  time  for  a  moment  and  see  the  old  man;  he  did 
so  like  to  talk  to  one  that  knew  Waiden.  About  the  Loh- 
wassers,  he  said  the  Charity  Society  was  helping  them, 
and  the  neighbors  did  what  they  could,  but  it  was  hard. 
He  said  he  had  heard  that  Tilly  had  sent  money  to  her 
mother,  and  her  mother  had  refused  to  take  it. 

On  a  certain  vacation  day  about  that  time,  having  nothing 
to  do,  and  cherishing  a  favorite  but  usually  futile  design  of 

74 


The  Suicide  Slip  from  Rivington  Street 

finding  copy  for  a  "  special  Sunday  story/'  I  was  sitting 
idly  in  Tompkins  Square,  where,  according  to  old  tradition, 
the  grass  will  never  grow,  when  it  occurred  to  me  that  it 
might  be  decent  to  drop  in  upon  the  Rubensteins.  The  old 
court  was  as  reeking  as  it  had  been  on  the  day  of  the  suicide, 
the  hallways  as  filthy,  the  children  were  as  neglected,  but 
the  two  rooms  of  the  Rubensteins  were  scrubbed  and  in 
order.  The  old  man  was  still  out  of  work,  but  it  appeared 
that  good  fortune  had  befallen  them  otherwise,  and  the 
patriarch  thanked  God  for  it.  There  was  Bertha — six 
months  before  she  had  lost  her  place  in  the  department 
store  and  for  a  time  all  looked  dark;  not  a  cent  came  in 
to  pay  the  rent  and  buy  food  but  only  what  Julius  made 
from  his  papers  and  what  the  old  man  got  from  peddling 
iron  pots  and  skillets.  But  God  was  good,  and  now  Bertha 
had  a  place  in  an  all-night  restaurant,  and  sometimes  the 
tips  the  customers  gave  her  amounted  in  one  night  to  sev- 
eral dollars;  and  now  all  the  family  was  happy.  If  the 
patriarch  could  get  a  place  in  a  sweatshop,  they  would 
move  into  better  rooms;  perhaps  they  might  even  live  in 
a  front  tenement.  It  was  all  due  to  Bertha,  she  was  such 
a  good  girl.  I  looked  at  Bertha,  and  she  seemed  but  ill 
at  ease  under  this  praise.  Where  was  the  all-night  restau- 
rant? Up  town,  they  said:  a  long  distance  up  town,  that 
was  the  worst  of  it;  Forty-second  Street.  But  Bertha 
didn't  mind,  she  was  such  a  good  girl,  and  all  was  well 
at  last. 

There  pertained  to  this  scene  an  uneasy  suggestion  that 
Bertha  was  too  good-looking  to  be  working  in  an  all-night 
restaurant,  and  the  name  thereof  had  also  no  reassuring 
sound  in  a  reporter's  ears.  Nevertheless,  I  concluded  that 
all  must  be  well  since  the  patriarch  had  said  so,  and  went 
my   way.      Not   long   afterward    I   was   transferred    from 

75 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

Police  Headquarters  to  the  Court  of  General  Sessions,  and 
for  many  months  I  did  not  see  Julius  nor  hear  of  him. 
But  one  night,  coming  from  a  Broadway  theater,  I  was 
startled  to  observe  among  the  women  skulking  in  a  side 
street  a  face  that  seemed  familiar.  I  stopped  to  look  more 
closely,  and  it  was  Bertha.  For  some  reason  not  clear 
to  me  I  seemed  to  be  prepared  for  the  discovery,  and  this 
explanation  of  the  all-night  restaurant  seemed  to  be  ex- 
actly what  I  had  looked  for.  But  I  was  not  so  well  pre- 
pared for  the  next  chapter  in  the  story.  About  six  months 
later  I  found  one  day  in  my  box  at  the  office  a  postal  card 
from  Julius  with  this  scrawled  upon  it  in  pencil: 

Dear  Mr.  Russell: 

Grandfather  died  last  night.     Can  you  come  to  see  us? 

Julius   Rubenstein. 

I  went  up  to  Rivington  Street  that  night.  As  I  was 
coming  away  Julius  stumped  with  me  out  upon  the  landing. 

"  Isn't  Bertha  here?  "  I  said,  for  I  had  noted  her  ab- 
sence. He  shook  his  head,  and  looked  down  at  the  point 
of  his  crutch.     "  She  hasn't  been  home  for  weeks." 

"  Did  the  old  man  know?  "  I  asked. 

He  nodded.  "  It  did  for  him,"  he  said.  We  shook 
hands  and  he  stumped  back  to  the  rooms.  That  was 
almost  the  end  of  the  story  so  far  as  I  knew  about  it. 
Julius  came  out  all  right,  got  him  a  little  corner  news-stand, 
and  did  well.  I  do  not  know  more  about  Bertha,  except 
that  she  died  many  years  ago.  Julius  took  care  of  the 
other  girls;  one  married  a  bookmaker,  and  one  an  East 
Side  jeweler. 

The  whole  story  lay  for  years  in  the  disused  attic  wherein 
we  stow,  like  old  clothes,  the  experiences  that  no  longer 
are  the  apparel  of  the  day's  life,  when  about  a  year  ago 

76 


The  Suicide  Slip  from  Rivington  Street 

it  was  sharply  recalled  to  my  mental  vision.  I  was  sitting 
one  night  in  a  vile,  notorious  resort  just  off  Broadway  in 
the  Forties.  The  introduction  requires  some  explaining, 
for  perhaps  without  impropriety  I  may  be  allowed  to  say 
that  neither  the  place  nor  its  environment  are  of  my  habit, 
nor  yet  of  my  ordinary  interest.  I  had  been  taken  thither 
by  my  friend,  Lieutenant  O'Darrell,  of  the  Central  Office 
detectives,  who  desired  to  show  me  the  modern  aspects  of 
a  form  of  metropolitan  life  from  which  I  had  long  been 
estranged,  and  had  also  a  professional  reason  for  his 
presence.  He  was  on  mission  bent  to  catch  two  burglars, 
and  this  place  was  at  times  their  favorite  haunt. 

There  was  a  long  room  on  the  ground  floor,  staringly 
lighted,  papered  in  fiendish  reds,  and  with  small  tables 
at  the  sides.  In  the  middle  was  raised  a  platform,  with 
a  piano  and  some  fiddlers.  From  time  to  time  some  woman 
with  a  cracked  voice  and  a  low-necked  dress  would  take 
her  place  on  this  platform  and  sing  sentimental  songs  that 
no  one  seemed  to  hear.  On  the  floor  above  was  a  room 
that  almost  duplicated  the  room  on  the  first  floor.  At 
the  tables  in  the  two  rooms  sat,  I  suppose,  as  many  as 
three  hundred  prostitutes,  ostensibly  to  eat  and  drink; 
actually  for  commercial  purposes.  All  stages  of  degrada- 
tion were  represented  in  that  fearful  gathering,  and  all  the 
horrors  of  hell.  A  man  need  not  be  a  puritan  nor  of 
any  nice  scruples  about  the  recognized  facts  of  life  to 
be  struck  here  into  dumb  disgust  of  the  whole  business. 
Three  hundred  women  pitcliing  down  the.  brink  of  per- 
dition before  one's  eyes  is  a  little  too  much.  After  a  few 
minutes  I  was  for  fresh  air  and  a  better  scene,  when,  in 
glancing  about  the  room  my  eyes  fell  upon  a  face  that 
looked  exactly  like  my  recollection  of  Bertha's,  and  at 
once  the   whole  story   of  the   Rubensteins   poured  out   of 

77 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

the  closet  where  it  had  lain,  dust-covered,  these  many  years. 
A  sudden  thought  struck  me. 

"  Lieutenant/'  I  said,  "  where  do  all  these  women  come 
from?     What  were  they  before  they  started  for  hell?" 

"  '  Started  for  hell '  is  a  good  phrase,"  said  the  Lieuten- 
ant, philosophically.  "  It  reminds  me  of  something  I  will 
tell  you  later.  Where  do  all  these  women  come  from? 
Department  stores,  shops,  cloak  shops,  artificial  flower 
shops,  workrooms  of  different  sorts.  Nearly  all  of  them 
have  been  at  work  somewhere,  lost  their  jobs,  or  got  tired 
of  standing  on  their  feet  all  day,  and  drifted  into  this. 
There  are  some  exceptions.  That  woman  over  there  with 
the  younger  woman  opposite  her  is  a  professional.  That's 
her  daughter.  She  trained  her  daughter  to  her  way  of 
life.  Deliberately  chose  it.  Her  son's  a  pickpocket  now 
doing  time  at  Sing  Sing.  I  pinched  him  on  Broadway 
here.  But  her  case  is  unusual.  Most  girls  are  driven 
into  it.      It's  this  or  starve." 

"  Did  you  ever  know  any  of  them  to  reform?  "  I  asked. 
"  Don't  they  ever  get  sick  of  it  and  try  to  turn  back?  " 

"  That  was  what  I  was  going  to  tell  you;  you  said 
'  started  for  hell,'  and  it's  a  phrase  that  has  a  peculiar 
meaning  to  me.  One  night  in  such  a  place  as  this  I  saw 
a  girl  that  came  from  my  native  town.  I  used  to  know 
her  people.  Well,  you  know,  it  went  over  me  what  was 
ahead  for  her.  I  took  her  aside  and  gave  her  a  straight 
talk.  She  told  me  her  story:  I  don't  know  as  you  could 
blame  her  if  you  knew.  I  gave  her  money  enough 
and  sent  her  home.  It  seems  the  people  in  that  town 
wouldn't  let  her  be  decent.  About  six  months  later  I  was 
in  a  fierce  joint  in  the  Bowery  looking  for  a  member  of 
the  Monk  Eastman  gang,  and  in  the  back  room  there  she 
was.    '  Here,'  I  said,  '  what  are  you  doing  here  ?     I  thought 

78 


The  Suicide  Slip  from  Rivington  Street 

you  promised  me  to  reform  ?  '  The  old  bartender  crooked 
his  neck  over  the  bar  and  said :  '  Reform  ?  Well,  when  I 
was  young  I  used  to  think  I  could  reform  some  of  them 
myself,  but  now  when  I  see  a  woman  started  for  hell  I 
just  tell  her  to  get  a  through  ticket.'  It  sounds  rough, 
but  that's  about  what  life  is.     Once  down,  always  down." 

O'Darrell  told  me  that  in  the  region  bounded  by  Twenty- 
third  and  Sixty-sixth  Streets,  the  North  River,  Sixth  Ave- 
nue, and  Broadway  dwelt  15,000  prostitutes.  I  asked  him 
how  many  there  were  in  the  whole  city,  and  he  said  he 
could  give  but  a  guess,  but  from  the  numbers  in  the  regions 
familiar  to  him  he  thought  there  must  be  25,000.  A  police 
commander  in  Chicago  once  told  me  that  there  were  20,000 
in  his  city,  and  10,000  have  been  reported  in  Philadelphia. 
The  average  life  of  these  unfortunates  is  said  to  be  four 
years  from  the  time  when  they  "  start  for  hell."  If  there 
are  20,000  in  Chicago,  there  must  be  5,000  every  year  that 
enter  upon  this  road.  If  5,000  women  were  shot  in  Chi- 
cago we  should  cry  out  in  horror,  and  yet  that  would  be 
really  a  less  shocking  thing. 

This  is  not  a  pleasant  subject.  I  do  not  know  any 
phase  of  the  existing  system  that  is  pleasant.  But  if  we 
are  to  examine  this  system  fairly  and  adequately  we  can- 
not omit  this  part  of  it.  I  am  quite  well  aware  that  there 
are  other  causes  for  prostitution  than  the  one  great  eco- 
nomic cause;  likewise,  I  know  that  we  should  not  at  once 
abolish  all  prostitution  if  we  could  abolish  the  economic 
cause.  But  the  economic  cause  is  greater  than  all  other 
causes  together,  far  greater.  I  think  it  a  fair  statement, 
and  I  have  for  it  the  indorsement  of  many  observers, 
that  85  per  cent,  of  the  women  that  "  start  for  hell  "  make 
that  start  because  of  necessity.  "  It's  either  that  or  starve," 
as  O'Darrell  said.    In  New  York  they  are  department  store 

79 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

employees,  shop  girls,  and  hand-workers  that  have  lost 
their  employment;  in  cities  like  Newark,  Pittsburg,  Lowell, 
they  are  former  factory  hands.  In  cases  where  they  are 
not  workers  deprived  of  their  work,  they  are  women  to 
whom  no  avenue  of  employment  was  open,  or  women  unable 
by  their  work  to  earn  enough  to  support  those  dependent 
upon  them. 

I  have  heard  in  discussions  of  this  subject  some  very 
unfair  criticisms  of  the  men  that  own  or  manage  depart- 
ment stores  and  shops.  It  has  been  said  of  them  that  if 
they  were  to  pay  a  living  wage  to  the  girls  in  their  employ 
they  would  prevent  an  immense  amount  of  evil.  "  How," 
it  is  customary  to  ask,  "can  a  girl  live  on  $5  a  week?" 
Good  question.  Even  if  she  lived  at  home,  such  wages 
are  merely  a  temptation  to  the  downward  path.  Of  her 
$5  she  must  pay  at  least  60  cents  a  week  for  her  carfare, 
and  since  the  transfers  were  abolished  in  New  York,  she 
must  pay  more.  Then  her  luncheons  cost  her  at  least 
$1.50  a  week.  That  means  that  of  her  $5  she  has  left 
$2.90  at  the  end  of  the  week,  providing  she  has  not  been 
fined.  The  store  demands  that  she  be  neatly  dressed,  and 
to  dress  neatly  and  in  accordance  with  the  rules  will  cost 
her  nearly  $2.90  a  week.  The  substance  of  her  employ- 
ment then  is  that  she  gives  her  time,  works  very  hard,  is 
all  day  upon  her  feet,  endures  the  exactions  of  captious 
customers  on  one  hand,  and  of  the  floor-walker  on  the 
other,  all  practically  for  nothing.  She  sees  coming  into 
the  store  well-dressed  women  that  do  no  work.  She  sees 
that  they  are  treated  with  great  respect  because  they  have 
money  to  spend.  She  goes  home  at  night  probably  to  some 
repulsive  tenement  where  everything  she  sees  and  hears 
tends  to  break  down  her  moral  sense.  Under  all  these 
conditions   the   great  wonder   is   that  the   majority   of   the 

80 


The  Suicide  Slip  from  Riving  ton  Street 

young  women  keep  good;  that  they  do  so  is  a  remarkable 
tribute  to  the  innate  goodness  of  women. 

All  this  is  perfectly  true  except  the  blame  for  the  owner 
of  the  store,  and  that  is  merely  an  example  of  the  evil 
haste  with  which  we  post  to  hold  individuals  responsible 
for  conditions.  By  no  possibility  can  the  proprietor  of 
the  department  store  or  shop  pursue  any  other  course  than 
that  for  which  he  is  thoughtlessly  criticised.  He  is  in  the 
position  in  which  we  found  the  manufacturers  in  the  pre- 
vious chapter;  he  does  what  he  does  because  he  cannot 
possibly  do  anything  else.  It  is  said  of  him  with  scorn 
that  he  pays  only  $4  a  week  or  $5  or  $6  to  the  girls  that 
work  for  him,  and  that  because  he  pays  them  no  more 
he  is  in  some  way  (not  made  clear)  responsible  for  their 
moral  decline.  But  how  can  he  pay  more?  He  is  com- 
peting with  many  other  stores;  if  he  bear  well  his  part 
in  that  competition  he  retains  his  store  and  will  retain 
business ;  if  he  lag  behind  he  will  lose  his  trade  and  his  store 
and  be  branded  a  bankrupt  and  a  failure.  Competition  forces 
upon  him  a  narrow  consideration  of  every  item  of  expense, 
for  that  is  the  price  of  his  business  salvation.  His  competi- 
tors obtain  girls  to  work  for  them  at  $1,  $5,  or  $6  a  week. 
They  have  no  difficulty  in  doing  this  because  for  every 
vacant  position  there  are  hundreds  of  applicants,  and  the 
girls  are  really  glad  to  get  work  at  any  price.  Therefore, 
the  man  that  we  are  considering  can,  and  indeed  he  must,  get 
girls  to  work  for  him  at  $-4,  $5,  or  $6  a  week,  and  he 
must  not  pay  more.  If  he  pay  more  he  will  soon  cease 
to  have  any  store  to  keep.  Some  other  man  will  then 
fill  his  place  that  will  yield  to  the  necessities  of  the  situa- 
tion and  pay  the  current  rates.  For  any  one  man  to  be 
quixotic  and  pay  what  is  called  a  living  wage  would  do 
no  possible  good  to  anyone  and  work  only  ruin  to  himself. 

81 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

Under  the  existing  system  no  shopkeeper  can  justly  incur 
the  slightest  reproach  for  paying  to  his  employees  the 
market  price  for  their  labor  and  no  more.  But  what  is 
to  be  blamed  is  the  existing  system.  So  long  as  we  have 
it  we  shall  have  with  all  its  other  hideous  features  this 
driving  of  women  to  their  moral  death,  and  all  the  rescue 
work,  missions,  social  purity  movements,  girls'  friendly 
societies,  sermons,  lectures,  tracts,  pamphlets,  personal 
efforts,  and  all  other  uplift  influences  together,  excellent 
and  admirable  as  they  are  in  purpose,  will  never  affect 
this  situation.  You  cannot  change  a  vast,  underlying  eco- 
nomic condition  by  preaching  at  it.  One  may  very  well 
believe  that  all  the  profits  made  everywhere  in  a  year  are 
not  worth  the  price  of  one  woman's  soul,  and  that  one 
ruined  life  is  enough  to  condemn  any  business.  That  does 
not  change  the  basic  facts.  Lost  women's  souls  and  ruined 
lives  are  the  product  of  this  system;  you  cannot  have  the 
system  without  the  product;  if  you  approve  of  the  system, 
I  offer  you  the  products  and  ask  you  to  approve  of  these 
also. 


82 


CHAPTER  VI 


A  BOY  S  OPPORTUNITY 


In  1891  the  New  York  Herald  sent  me  through  the 
South  to  investigate  the  industrial  revival  then  beginning 
there.  Until  that  time  the  South  Atlantic  States  had  grown 
much  cotton  and  shipped  it  to  the  North  or  to  Europe 
to  be  manufactured.  The  waste  involved  was  obvious,  and 
in  accordance  with  the  irresistible  law  of  evolution  could 
not  long  be  continued.  Mills  for  the  spinning  of  cotton 
were  beginning  to  spring  up  close  to  the  fields  where  the 
cotton  was  grown,  and  a  new  industrial  era  opened  for 
a  region  long  blighted  by  slavery  and  finally  prostrated  by 
war.  Like  most  Northerners  of  Abolitionist  antecedents, 
I  had  a  strong  sentimental  interest  in  the  South,  where 
I  had  traveled  much;  I  conceived  that  the  abolition  of 
the  hideous  curse  of  slavery  would  not  be  complete  with- 
out the  upbuilding  of  the  industrial  South  by  free  labor 
to  what  might  be  called  a  normal  level;  and  the  signs  of 
industrial  awakening  struck  me  as  extremely  admirable.  I 
went  through  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina, 
and  Georgia,  and  saw  with  delight  in  many  towns  the 
signs  of  progress.  Great  cotton  mills  in  these  towns  had 
taken  the  place  of  ramshackle  sheds  or  old  presses;  the 
hammers  were  still  ringing  on  the  houses  for  the  operatives ; 
the  old  lethargy  was  falling  from  the  inhabitants,  un- 
wontedly  stirred  by  so  much  liveliness.  All  this  presaged 
prosperity  and  general  happiness.    Opportunity  was  knock- 

83 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

ing  at  the  doors  of  the  South;  soon  we  should  have  a  new 
South  as  busy  and  populous  as  the  North,  and  all  made 
with  free  labor. 

A  year  later  I  was  detailed  to  Fall  River,  Mass.,  where 
I  passed  a  month  in  trying  to  solve  one  of  the  most  famous 
and  baffling  of  murder  mysteries.  Fall  River  is  a  great 
cotton  mill  town,  the  greatest  (in  point  of  product)  in 
the  United  States,  one  of  the  greatest  in  the  world,  for  it 
has  nearly  three  and  a  half  million  spindles.  In  one  way 
or  another  its  80,000  inhabitants  live  on  cotton  spinning; 
the  clatter  of  the  score  of  great  mills  resounds  all  day; 
and  bales  and  samples  of  cotton  litter  the  streets.  It 
was  my  first  good  opportunity  to  observe  deliberately  the 
inside  of  a  mill  town,  and  when  the  murder  trails  had 
been  drawn  into  a  court  proceeding,  and  one  frequently 
interrupted,  I  varied  the  monotony  with  some  practical 
sociology. 

I  am  obliged  to  say  that  the  results  seemed  wholly  at 
variance  with  my  previous  ideas  as  to  the  grandeur  and  glory 
of  industrial  development.  Here  modern  industrialism, 
embryonic  in  the  South,  was  in  a  state  of  perfec- 
tion; here  one  could  see  exactly  what  fruits  it  brought 
forth.  I  went  among  the  operatives'  dwellings  and  was 
disquieted  when  I  observed  that  these  people,  whose  in- 
dustry was  supposed  to  be  such  a  blessing  to  the  nation,  to 
the  community,  and  to  themselves,  lived  for  the  most  part  in 
squalid  quarters  and  in  a  condition  of  poverty  and  destitu- 
tion pitiable  to  see.  A  great  many  were  housed  in  old  wooden 
tenements,  dark,  frowsy,  ill-smelling,  and  obviously  of  a  de- 
fective sanitation.  I  was  inured  to  low  tenement  house 
conditions  in  the  teeming  East  Side  of  New  York;  but 
these,  I  had  supposed  to  be  the  sole  possession  of  a  great 
city,  and  in  some  mysterious  way  a  product  of  its  great- 

84 


A  Boy's  Opportunity 

ness:  but  here  were  conditions  at  least  as  bad,  and  some- 
times, I  thought,  still  worse. 

Indeed,  as  soon  as  one  turned  from  the  fair  main  streets 
of  Fall  River  and  from  the  homes  of  its  wealthy  inhabi- 
tants to  the  streets  where  the  workingmen  lived,  a  kind 
of  blackness  seemed  to  descend  upon  one.  The  physical  dis- 
comfort was  everywhere  too  apparent;  very  often  it  was 
not  merely  discomfort,  but  extreme  distress.  A  native 
led  me  into  one  house  inhabited  by  a  friend  of  his.  We 
went  up  a  flight  of  tottering  stairs  in  an  old  shambling 
ruin,  and,  the  day  being  Sunday,  found  the  man  at 
home.  He  was  employed  in  the  mills,  and  here  in  two 
little  rooms  he  dwelt  with  a  family  of  six.  The  rooms  were 
dark  and  ill-ventilated ;  the  family  looked  sickly.  The  elder 
children  worked  in  the  mills.  The  father  got  $7  a  week; 
the  children  from  $1  to  $2.50  each.  None  of  them  had 
any  education  to  speak  of;  they  had  been  taken  from  the 
lower  intermediate  grades  "  to  work  in  the  mills."  The 
father  had  consumption;  I  was  told  that  the  air  in  the 
mills  was  not  good  for  him;  and  after  a  casual  visit  there 
I  was  of  the  opinion  that  it  was  not  good  for  him  nor 
for  anybody  else.  The  air  in  his  squalid  home  was  not 
better,  so  far  as  I  could  discover:  the  man  was  merely 
being  poisoned  day  and  night,  so  that  his  doom  was  plainly 
stamped  upon  him.  His  children  were  started  toward 
the  same  end:  the  mills  doing  the  work  by  day,  and  by 
night  the  air  exhaled  from  a  consumptive's  lungs  and 
breathed  by  children  underfed,  overworked,  and  of  a  defi- 
cient vitality.  I  had  been  sent  to  Fall  River  to  investigate 
a  murder.  It  suddenly  struck  me  as  strange  that  nobody 
ever  seemed  to  investigate  this  other  kind  of  murder  going 
slowly  on  before  me.  The  murder  I  had  been  sent  to 
investigate  had  been  done  with  a  hatchet;  death  had  been 

85 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

instantaneous.  It  suddenly  occurred  to  me  that  of  the 
two  methods  slaughter  with  the  hatchet  was  the  more  merci- 
ful. Many  persons  wished  to  hang  the  perpetrator  of  the 
murder  with  the  hatchet.  How  did  it  happen  that  no  one 
wanted  to  arrest  or  prosecute  the  perpetrators  of  the  mur- 
ders here  in  these  tenements  ? 

One  of  the  members  of  this  family  of  victims  was  a 
boy  thirteen  or  fourteen  years  old,  I  should  say,  and 
I  doubt  if  anyone  could  look  at  him  without  grave  misgivings 
concerning  the  optimistic  philosophy  and  the  glories  of 
things  as  they  are.  According  to  the  doctrine  that  we 
assiduously  repeat  and  infallibly  believe,  this  boy,  a  child 
of  the  land  of  free  opportunity,  could  make  of  his  life 
anything  he  pleased.  He  could  be  President;  every  Amer- 
ican boy  has  that  dazzling  possibility  before  him.  He 
could  win  his  way  to  great  fortune:  any  American  boy 
could  become  rich ;  thousands  upon  thousands  of  boys,  as 
poor  as  he,  had  in  this  glorious  country  of  free  opportunity 
become  fabulously  rich;  riches  were  within  the  reach  of 
all.  And  there  this  boy  stood,  and  if  one  were  to  try  to  say 
these  things  to  him  one's  words  would  be  struck  to  silence 
upon  one's  lips.  No  human  being  could  have  the  assur- 
ance to  preach  opportunity  to  this  boy;  there  he  stood,  the 
mark  of  the  mills  already  on  his  face,  prematurely  old, 
hopelessly  dull,  obviously  inert.  He  had  already  begun 
to  stoop  like  his  father,  and  to  have  his  father's  look  of 
vacancy,  the  stamp  of  brutish  toil.  Of  education  he  had 
next  to  nothing;  he  could  read  and  write  (in  a  way), 
but  his  mind  was  one  of  the  most  hopeless  I  have  ever 
observed.  He  had  begun  to  chew  tobacco;  most  of  the  boys 
in  the  mills  chewed  tobacco,  I  was  told;  and  his  idea  of 
life  seemed  to  be  to  get  through  his  irksome  and  repulsive 
toil  by  day  and  to  pose  on  the  streets  at  night  as  a  young 

86 


A  Boy's  Opportunity 

ruffian.  And  over  him  all  the  time  was  the  creeping  shadow 
of  the  white  plague. 

Before  such  a  product,  the  glory  of  the  land  of  free 
opportunity  dwindled  rapidly.  Yet  he  was  but  a  type; 
there  were  hundreds  of  boys  like  him.  A  little  examination 
showed  that  few  of  them  seemed  to  have  any  ambition  or 
any  purpose  in  life  except  to  work  in  the  mills  and  ex- 
tract from  the  barren  remainder  of  the  day  what  scanty 
or  foolish  pleasure  they  could  find.  They  had  been  born 
In  the  mills;  their  world  was  circumscribed  by  the  mills; 
they  expected  to  die  in  the  mills.  Where  were  the  boys 
that  were  to  rise  to  the  Presidency  or  to  that  wealth 
said  to  be  open  to  all?  Where  were  they?  These 
toiled  doggedly  all  day  in  monotonous  and  drudging  labor, 
hour  by  hour  doing  the  same  thing  until  the  mere  monotony 
beat  their  minds  as  flat  as  boards.  They  came  forth  at 
night  weary  and  imbruted.  Their  education  had  stopped 
far  short  of  a  point  where  it  could  provide  them  with 
resources  or  the  least  armor  of  the  trained  mind.  The 
mills,  to  obtain  work  wherein  was  hailed  as  a  blessed  privi- 
lege, ground  up  more  than  cotton;  human  lives  went  no 
less  between  its  rollers  and  cruel  hooks.  Into  one  huge 
hopper  all  these  seemed  to  be  thrown — the  cotton  that  I 
knew  to  have  been  raised  for  a  poor  return  by  Southern 
farmers,  the  men  and  women  of  the  mills,  the  little  chil- 
dren robbed  of  their  childhood,  young  men  and  maidens 
that  ought  to  have  the  promise  of  fair  life  before  them — 
and  out  of  the  dreadful  grinding  there  issued  on  one  side 
the  profits  of  the  mill  owners,  and  on  the  other  a  ghastly 
train  of  ruined  lives. 

I  could  think  of  no  theory  on  which  such  things  could 
be  justified.  The  world  needed  cotton  cloth;  it  did  not 
need  the  palaces  of  the  mill  owners.    To  supply  the  world's 

87 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

need  the  operatives  contributed  their  indispensable  labor, 
and  were  rewarded  with  such  hideous  homes  as  this  I  had 
just  left,  with  ill-health,  privation,  disease,  and  the  pros- 
pect of  an  early  death  after  a  joyless  life.  The  mill  owners 
contributed  no  essential  thing,  and  their  reward  was  the 
life  of  ease  and  superfluity  in  such  a  palace  as  I  could  see 
shining  through  the  trees  on  the  hill.  I  could  learn  of 
no  justification  of  this  condition  then,  and  I  have  been 
able  to  learn  of  none  since. 

But  standing  that  day  in  Fall  River,  and  looking  first 
at  the  mill  owner's  palace,  gorgeous  in  the  sunlight,  and 
then  at  the  rotten  tenement,  I  fell  into  a  train  of  thought, 
obvious  enough,  and  yet,  if  I  may  make  the  confession, 
quite  new  to  me. 

Here,  said  I,  is  this  consumptive  operative  whose  home 
I  have  visited.  He  performs  in  the  mills  a  necessary  part 
of  the  work;  someone  must  do  this  work  that  society  may 
have  the  cotton  cloth  it  needs;  this  man  is  of  use  to  his 
times,  he  is  serving  his  kind.  From  this  street  that  leads 
to  his  frowsy  abode  I  can  see  on  the  other  side  of  the 
town  the  beautiful  house  and  extensive  grounds  of  the  mill 
owner.  This  man  has  inherited  the  stock  in  the  mill 
company ;  he  pays  little  attention  to  the  business ;  he  is  to  it 
not  the  slightest  use  in  the  world.  He  does  not  serve 
his  times,  he  is  of  no  use  to  his  kind.  He  dwells  in  this 
luxury  and  spends  much  of  his  time  in  pleasant  travel; 
the  man  of  use  toils  on  to  his  grave,  ill-fed  and  squalidly 
housed.     Exactly  why  is  this? 

It  was  impossible  to  avoid  that  question;  it  was  thrust 
too  persistently  in  my  face  as  I  went  my  way.  Custom 
decreed,  I  knew,  that  industry  should  be  conducted  by 
capital  and  labor,  and  that  of  the  products  of  industry 
capital  should  take  a  great  deal  and  labor  have  very  little. 

88 


A  Boy's  Opportunity 

But  just  why  should  this  be  so  arranged?  Custom,  of 
course,  was  a  powerful  thing;  but  after  all,  it  was  no 
reason.  Custom  had  once  excluded  all  but  noblemen  from 
any  share  in  the  government  and  had  upheld  the  theory 
of  government  by  divine  right.  Suppose  custom  were  the 
other  way;  suppose  custom  had  ordained  that  labor  should 
take  a  great  deal  of  the  products  of  industry  and  capital 
should  take  very  little.  It  was  obvious  that  in  such  a  case  the 
operative  would  now  be  living  in  the  palace  and  the  idle 
mill  owner  would  be  living  in  the  rotten  tenement;  and 
a  suggestion  that  this  arrangement  was  not  perfectly  right 
would  seem  very  strange — as  strange  as  any  suggestion 
against  the  present  system  seems  now. 

But,  I  said  to  myself,  if  the  operative  really  received 
the  great  reward  and  the  mill  owner  the  little,  why  should 
that  not  be  an  arrangement  far  more  consistent  with  jus- 
tice? The  operative  contributes  to  the  enterprise  an  essen- 
tial thing;  the  mill  owner  contributes  something  that  is 
not  an  essential  but  only  a  convenience.  Clearly,  it  is 
but  a  handy  fiction  to  say  that  in  industry  capital  and 
labor  are  equally  necessary.  They  are  not;  capital  is  not 
necessary  at  all;  only  labor  is  necessary.  All  that  capital 
does  could  be  done  as  well  without  it.  Let  me  see.  Capi- 
tal, I  shall  say,  erects  the  building  for  the  mill.  Good. 
But  the  building  is  really  erected  with  the  labor  of  men's 
hands,  and  it  is  easily  conceivable  that  such  labor  might 
be  had  and  the  building  be  erected  without  capital,  for 
each  man  employed  might  contribute  his  labor  if  he  so 
desired.  This  is  not  only  conceivable,  but  has  often  hap- 
pened. 

Next,  capital  places  in  the  building  the  engine  and 
machinery  necessary  for  the  work  of  the  mill.  Good. 
But  all  of  these  engines  and  machines  are  made  with  the 

89 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

labor  of  men's  hands,  and  if  the  men  that  made  them 
desired  to  do  so  they  could  contribute  their  labor  without 
the  interposition  of  capital. 

Next,  capital  purchases  coal  whereof  to  make  steam  to 
operate  the  engines  and  machines.  Good.  But  this  coal 
was  mined  and  prepared  with  the  labor  of  men,  and  these 
men  might,  if  they  chose,  contribute  their  labor  and  pro- 
duce the  coal  without  the  least  assistance  from  capital. 

Capital  transports  the  coal  and  the  machinery  over  rail- 
roads. Good.  But  all  these  railroads  are  operated  with 
men's  labor  and  could  easily  be  so  operated  if  there  were 
no  capital. 

Capital  attends  to  the  marketing  of  the  product  of  the 
mill.  Good.  But  here,  again,  the  marketing  is  done  with 
the  labor  of  men,  and  if  men  so  determined  they  could 
contribute  their  labor  and  proceed  without  capital. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  building  could  not  be  erected, 
nor  the  engines  and  machines  produced,  nor  the  coal  mined, 
nor  the  railroads  operated,  nor  the  product  marketed  with- 
out labor. 

So  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  essential  of  productive 
industry  is  labor,  and  capital  is  a  mere  convenience  that 
at  any  time  could  be  cast  aside  without  interfering  with 
productive  industry. 

It  must  be,  therefore,  that  the  present  division  of  the 
proceeds  of  industry  is  purely  arbitrary,  irrational,  and 
unjust,  and  it  is  maintained  solely  for  the  benefit  of  the 
capitalist. 

One  result  of  this  injustice,  I  said,  is  that  the  worker, 
the  useful  man,  the  man  that  contributes  to  the  enterprise 
the  essential  of  its  being,  the  man  that  is  of  use  and 
service,  gets  too  little  to  eat,  is  badly  housed  and  over- 
worked, and  crawls  through  life  without  the  joy  and  suffi- 

90 


A  Boy's  Opportunity 

ciency  to  which  every  child  of  earth  is  clearly  entitled. 
Not  only  so,  but  he  is  part  of  a  huge  and  growing  army 
of  men  thus  robbed  of  the  happiness  to  which  they  are 
entitled;  and  he  is  not  only  robbed  himself,  but  the  rob- 
bery extends  to  his  children,  and  is  multiplied  upon  them 
so  that  we  are  breeding  a  separate  race  of  industrial  serfs, 
deficient  in  mind  and  body,  the  chained  slaves  of  the 
machine,  all  robbed,  and  all  accumulating  a  bill  of  wrongs 
that  the  future  must  settle. 

I  recalled  that  not  long  before  there  had  been  a  strike 
in  these  mills:  all  the  operatives  had  ceased  to  work — 
in  order  to  better  their  condition.  On  reflection,  that 
seemed  an  anomalous  thing,  that  to  better  their  condition 
men  should  cease  to  produce  when  clearly  production  and 
work  were  primal  necessities  of  life.  I  recalled  some 
newspaper  comments  on  the  strike.  The  strikers  were  very 
bitterly  condemned  for  striking;  they  seemed  to  be  re- 
garded as  offenders  against  public  decency,  and  some  news- 
papers seemed  to  think  the  militia  ought  to  be  called  out. 
I  had  seen  many  strikes  attended  with  the  calling  out 
of  the  militia,  and  like  every  other  observer,  I  understood 
quite  well  that  the  only  purpose  of  having  the  militia  called 
out  was  to  frighten  the  strikers  back  to  work.  I  knew, 
too,  in  a  general  way,  that  it  was  for  this  purpose  that 
militia  and  armories  were  maintained  at  a  heavy  public 
expense.  But  after  I  had  seen  the  mill  operatives  the  idea 
of  driving  them  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet  back  to  their 
deadly  mills  struck  me,  of  a  sudden,  as  a  kind  of  grew- 
some  jest. 

They  told  me  at  Fall  River  that  at  intervals  the  mill 
owners,  to  better  their  condition,  would  close  the  mills  for  a 
time  and  cease  production.  No  bitter  comments  ever  fol- 
lowed this  species  of  strike,  but  it  seemed  to  be  accepted  as 

91 


Why  1  Am  a  Socialist 

quite  reasonable  and  proper.  No  one  demanded  that  the 
militia  should  be  called  out  to  coerce  the  mill  owners. 
Yet,  on  reflection,  I  was  unable  to  see  exactly  why  not. 
I  could  not  tell  exactly  why  the  man  that  owned  a  mill 
could  stop  it  to  better  his  condition  and  the  man  that 
worked  in  it  had  no  such  right.  So  far  as  I  could  see, 
to  stop  the  mill  for  one  was  exactly  as  bad  as  to  stop  it 
for  the  other,  and  if  a  distinction  were  to  be  made  legally 
against  the  man  that  worked  in  the  mill,  then  I  could 
not  well  escape  the  conclusion  that  legally,  also,  as  much 
as  industrially,  this  man  must  be  a  serf. 

Of  all  this  gloomy  outlook  the  worst  seemed  to  me  to 
pertain  to  the  children.  The  right  of  a  child  to  its  child- 
hood, the  right  to  be  happy  and  to  know  the  sunlight 
and  the  green  grass  and  the  trees,  to  learn  and  to  play, 
to  look  upon  the  world  as  a  happy  place,  to  look  forward 
with  joy  to  life  in  such  a  world — that  seemed  to  me  a 
right  at  least  as  inalienable  as  the  right  of  the  millionaire 
to  possess  his  millions.  But  here  the  child's  rights  were 
absolutely  denied.  A  dreary  and  animal  existence  in  some 
place  unfit  for  human  beings,  a  few  weeks  in  a  crowded 
schoolroom,  bawled  at  by  an  overworked  and  underpaid 
teacher,  and  then  into  the  mills  to  be  ground  up  for  profits, 
and  his  bones  to  the  cemetery  when  no  more  profits  can 
be  extracted  from  them;  this  was  a  child's  life  in  the 
operatives'  quarter  of  Fall  River,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A.,  land 
of  free  opportunity,  in  the  year  of  grace,  1892.  And 
overhead  the  joyous  sun,  and  all  about  the  beautiful  green 
earth,  with  fruits  enough  for  all,  and  this  child's  life 
ruined  from  its  beginning  that  we  may  have  more  profits. 

If  now  this  sounds  acrid,  I  can  but  protest  that  I  had 
and  have  no  such  stuff  in  my  thoughts,  but  only  to  tell 
the    facts    that   lie   everywhere   around   us,   only   we   will 

92 


A  Boy's  Opportunity 

not  see  them  nor  acknowledge  them.  I  have  heard  men 
to  whom  the  conditions  in  Fall  River,  Lowell,  Lawrence, 
Haverhill,  Paterson,  Pittsburg,  Newark,  or  other  like  per- 
ditions must  be  fairly  familiar,  repeat  with  an  appearance 
of  sincerity  the  ancient  platitudes  concerning  the  land  of 
opportunity  and  the  glorious  chances  of  success  that  lie 
before  every  poor  boy.  Standing  there,  all  such  senti- 
ments seemed  a  travesty  not  to  be  uttered;  and  seeing  in 
Fall  River  the  perfected  work,  I  began  to  doubt  very  much 
the  essential  advantages  of  the  industrial  development  of 
the  South  that  I  had  praised. 

Fifteen  years  later  I  had  a  chance  to  see  how  this 
matter  had  worked  out  in  practice.  I  went  again  over 
much  of  the  ground  in  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South 
Carolina,  and  Georgia  that  I  had  traversed  before.  The 
progress  on  the  lines  I  had  forecasted  was  everything  that 
could  have  been  desired — of  that  kind.  Every  station 
through  the  cotton  belt  had  its  mill  busily  spinning.  The 
dividends  of  some  of  the  companies  had  been  exceedingly 
good.  What  was  called  prosperity  had  come  to  the  greater 
part  of  the  region,  and  many  of  the  towns  had  grown  so 
rapidly  I  could  hardly  recognize  them.  The  mills  had 
done  a  thing  that  all  my  life  I  had  heard  lauded  as  most 
desirable  and  admirable.  They  had  "  furnished  employ- 
ment "  to  thousands.  But  on  any  inspection  it  appeared 
that  the  average  life  of  the  masses  of  people  had  not 
improved;  the  proportion  of  poor  to  rich  had  not  dimin- 
ished; there  were  no  fewer  people  whose  lives  must  be 
passed  in  insufficiency;  on  the  contrary,  there  were  more. 
The  prosperity  had  been  the  prosperity  of  the  well-to-do; 
the  rest  of  mankind  had  no  more  to  eat,  no  better  clothes, 
no  better  houses,  no  more  joy  or  light.  Indeed,  the  average 
of  white  men's  homes,  at  least,  seemed  to  have  been  de- 

93 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

pressed.  Most  of  the  operatives  lived  in  houses  not  much 
better  than  sheds,  and  in  each  of  these  towns  was  begin- 
ning or  well  under  way  a  miniature  Fall  River. 

Beyond  all  this  was  the  unspeakable  blight  and  crime 
of  child  labor,  far  worse  than  my  worst  recollections  of 
Fall  River;  if  Fall  River  slew  her  scores  of  little  children, 
the  cotton  industry  of  the  South  slew  its  hundreds.  About 
this  I  offer  for  testimony  not  merely  my  own  observation, 
but  the  words  of  witnesses  of  much  greater  importance. 
Here,  for  instance,  is  Mrs.  John  Van  Vorst,  who  was  in 
the  South  about  the  time  I  was,  and  whose  invaluable 
book  *  is  full  of  grave  lessons  to  a  purblind  race.  I  shall 
quote  from  Mrs.  Van  Vorst  a  typical  scene  in  a  Southern 
cotton  mill,  because  she  can  describe  it  much  better  than 
I  can: 


I  could  not  take  my  attention  from  the  tinier  of  the  tiny  pair. 
The  boy's  hands  appeared  to  be  made  without  bones,  his  thumb 
flew  back  almost  double  as  he  pressed  the  cotton  to  loosen  it 
from  the  revolving  roller  in  the  spinning- f rame ;  they  no  longer 
moved,  these  yellow  anemic  hands,  as  if  directed  in  their  different 
acts  by  a  thinking  intelligence;  they  performed  mechanically  their 
gestures  that  had  given  them  that  definite  form. 

The  red-headed  girl  laughed  and  nodded  in  the  direction  of  the 
dwarf. 

"  He's  'most  six,"  she  said.  "  He's  been  here  two  years.  He 
come  in  when  he  was  'most  four.  His  little  brother  'most  four's 
workin'  here  now." 

"Yes?    Where?" 

"  Oh,  he  works  on  the  night  shift.  He  comes  in  'beaout  half-a- 
past  five  and  stays  tell  six  in  the  mornin'." 

I  went  over  to  the  other  dwarf  of  the  couple,  older  evidently 
than  the  boy  "  'most  six."     Below  her  red  cotton  frock  hung  a 

*  "  The  Cry  of  the  Children,"  1909,  New  York.  Moffat,  Yard 
&  Co. 

94 


A  Boy's  Opportunity 

long  apron  that  reached  the  ground.  Her  hair  was  short  and 
shaggy,  her  face  bloated,  her  eyes  like  a  depression  in  the  flesh, 
and  about  her  mouth  trailed  dark  streams  of  tobacco.  It  seemed 
atrocious  to  question  her.  Oblivion  was  the  only  thing  that  could 
have  been  mercifully  tendered — even  the  peace  of  death  could 
hardly  have  relaxed  those  tense  features,  cast  in  the  dogged  mold 
of  misery. 

"  How  old  are  you  ?  "  I  asked. 

She  shook  her  head.     "  I  don't  know." 

"What  do  you  earn?" 

She  shook  her  head  again. 

Her  fingers  did  not  for  a  moment  stop  in  their  swift  manipula- 
tion of  the  broken  threads.  Then,  as  if  she  had  suddenly  remem- 
bered something,  she  said: 

"  I've  only  been  workin'  here  a  day." 

"  Only  one  day  ?  " 

"  I've  been  on  the  night  shift  tell  neow." 

Dwarfs?  Ah,  yes;  dwarfs,  indeed.  But  would  that  those  that 
affirm  it  might  once  catch  sight  of  the  expression  that  lowered 
under  the  brows  of  these  two  miniature  victims.  Like  a  menace, 
threatening,  terrible,  it  seemed  to  presage  the  storm  that  shall 
one  day  be  unchained  by  the  spirits  too  long  pent  up  in  service 
to  the  greed  of  man. 

Little  children  in  the  process  of  being  first  robbed  and 
then  murdered  in  the  sacred  cause  of  profits.  If  you  like 
the  system  of  which  this  is  the  certain  fruit,  come  here 
and  like  the  fruit  also.  You  should  not  like  the  one  with- 
out the  other.  And  if  you  accept  both,  let  me  ask  you 
one  question.  How  if  this  robbed  and  tortured  child  were 
your  daughter,  or  your  little  sister?  How  would  you  like 
that?  And  if  it  would  be  bad  for  your  daughter,  or  your 
sister,  do  you  think  it  can  be  good  for  another  man's 
daughter  and  another  man's  sister? 

No  one  need  think  that  Mrs.  Van  Vorst's  descriptions 
are  in  the  least  exaggerated;  she  has  but  understated  the 
facts.     For  what  she  saw  and  I  saw  and  others  saw  we 

95 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

have  fortunately  the  corroboration  of  a  witness  without 
emotions  or  sympathies,  and  incapable  of  the  least  in- 
accuracy; we  have  the  camera.  A  representative  of  Every- 
body's Magazine  traversed  the  South  in  the  winter  of 
1908-9  taking  pictures,  as  well  as  making  careful  notes, 
and  some  of  his  photographs  reproduced  in  the  magazine 
were  calculated  to  turn  the  beholder  cold.  He  had  caught 
civilization  red-handed  upon  its  victims;  he  had  pictured 
relentlessly  every  successive  step  in  the  slaughter  of  the 
innocents  that  this  system  of  industry  involves,  and  here 
he  disclosed  the  sum  of  its  results. 

He  found,  to  give  you  here  but  one  example,  a  girl  of 
eleven  that  had  been  in  the  mills  since  she  was  five.  She 
could  neither  read  nor  write,  but  the  foreman  said  she 
was  the  best  worker  on  his  floor.  She  looked  so  old  that 
persons  that  saw  her  for  the  first  time  were  always  startled, 
and  thought  she  must  be  in  some  way  deformed,  or  ab- 
normal, or  uncanny.  At  eleven  years  of  age  her  face  was 
lined  and  hollow  and  gray,  like  an  old  woman's.  Care 
and  the  brute  struggle  for  daily  bread  had  stamped  it 
with  their  usual  marks.  When  she  was  asked  the  simplest 
questions  of  ordinary  human  knowledge  she  shook  her  head 
and  made  a  guttural  sound  of  negation.  She  seemed  hardly 
human ;  no  one  about  her  could  remember  to  have  seen 
her  laugh  or  play  or  take  part  in  any  pleasure.  Her 
earliest  associations  were  with  the  mills  and  drudging  work 
therein ;  her  life  of  toil  seemed  to  have  crushed  out  of  her 
all  faculties  not  connected  with  her  work;  and  she  had, 
in  fact,  become  a  part  of  the  machinery,  in  any  true  sense 
as  dead  as  one  of  the  cog-wheels  and  already  doomed  to 
a   like   fate. 

I  have  played  tricks  with  the  photograph  of  this  little 
girl.      I   have   shown   merely   her   head   without  her   body, 

96 


A  Boy's  Opportunity 

and  caused  persons  to  guess  her  age.  Some  have  said  forty 
and  some  thirty-five;  none  ever  came  anywhere  near  the 
truth.  I  have  shown  her  complete  photograph  and  told 
her  story  to  some  men  and  they  have  clenched  their  fists 
and  sworn,  and  tears  have  come  into  women's  eyes  when 
they  looked  at  her. 

She  is  only  a  type,  a  single  example  of  the  work  we 
are  doing  for  the  next  generation.  She  worked  in  an 
Alabama  mill.  Do  you  imagine  that  Alabama  is  the  only 
state  in  the  Union  where  such  things  go  on?  They  go 
on  everywhere;  the  only  difference  is  in  degree.  The 
South  is  only  relatively  worse  than  the  North.  In  every 
Northern  State  are  thousands  of  children  almost  equally 
robbed  and  maltreated.  Everybody's  Magazine  had  photo- 
graphs likewise  of  boys  employed  in  the  coal  mines  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  boys  employed  in  the  glass  factories 
of  Indiana,  and  on  all  of  them  was  the  same  stamp  of 
soul-murder  and  body-murder.  Mrs.  Van  Vorst  says  that 
in  the  United  States  are  1,500,000  little  children  illegally 
employed  in  the  productive  industries.  Other  authorities 
place  the  number  as  high  as  1,700,000.  In  view  of  that 
fact,  I  know  of  nothing  stranger  than  this,  that  you  can 
with  great  ease  and  great  success  gather  meetings  and 
form  associations  to  declaim  against  war,  and  with  only 
the  greatest  difficulty  can  you  draw  a  passing  attention  to 
this  huge  evil  a  thousand  times  worse  than  any  war. 

Does  anyone  think  it  is  to  be  abolished  with  more  legis- 
lation? Many  states  now  have  stringent  laws  against  the 
employment  of  children,  and  in  most  of  these  states  the 
law  is  violated.  Mrs.  Van  Vorst  found  in  staid,  well- 
ordered  New  Hampshire  what  might  be  called  an  open 
contempt  for  the  law  about  clnldren.  In  the  mills  of 
Manchester    she    found    hundreds    of    children    manifestly 

97 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

under  the  prescribed  age  of  employment,  and  no  apparent 
attempt  to  enforce  the  law  or  inspect  the  factories.  Chil- 
dren are  illegally  employed  in  New  York  State  in  the 
teeth  of  repeated  and  stringent  legislation,  and  very  high 
public  officers  have  apparently  connived  at  the  crime. 
The  ready  defense  for  the  mill  owner  and  the  factory 
inspector  alike  is  that  the  parents  lie  about  the  ages  of 
their  children  in  order  to  get  the  children  at  work,  and 
if  the  parents  lie,  who  shall  gainsay  them?  But  how 
is  it  that  nobody  inquires  why  the  parents  lie?  These 
people  are  not  readier  than  others  to  see  their  chil- 
dren swept  away  to  death  or  ruin.  The  plain  reason 
for  their  lying  and  the  reason  why  they  seek  to  have 
their  children  at  work  is  that  they  need  the  money  the 
children  earn;  the  struggle  for  life  is  so  hard  upon  them 
that  they  must  have  these  additional  earnings  that  the 
family  may  live.  It  was  for  this  reason  that  when  a 
few  years  ago  the  question  of  child  labor  was  before  a 
British  Trades  Union  Congress  in  London  the  representa- 
tives of  514,000  textile  workers  voted  in  favor  of  it.  They 
said  so;  they  said  that  in  existing  conditions  without  the 
wages  earned  by  the  little  children  they  did  not  know 
how  they  should  live.  Yet  there  were  no  little  children 
of  the  mill  owners  being  ground  to  death  that  their  parents 
might  live.  It  was  only  the  children  of  the  men  that 
contributed  something  essential  to  the  enterprise  that  suf- 
fered this  infinite  wrong.  One  man  in  those  cotton  mills 
wove  enough  cloth  for  200  persons,  and  yet  himself  went 
badly  clad,  badly  shod,  badly  fed,  was  badly  housed, 
and  to  keep  the  breath  in  his  own  body  was  obliged  to 
sacrifice  his  children.  What  possible  defense  can  there 
be  for  such  a  condition? 

So  we  take   also  this   immeasurable   crime   and   pile  it 

98 


A  Boy's  Opportunity 

• 

upon  the  head  of  this  abominable  system,  already  dripping 
with  blood  and  bowed  with  so  many  other  abominations, 
knowing  quite  well  that  nothing  ever  conceived  by  man 
is  strong  enough  to  endure  under  the  curse  of  little  chil- 
dren. And  while  we  are  filled  with  horror  at  child  labor 
and  its  consequences,  we  need  not  forget  that  all  of  it, 
and  all  of  the  system  of  production  and  distribution  re- 
sponsible for  it,  are  unnecessary. 

We  can  have  cotton  spinning  without  murdering  little 
children,  and  without  darkening  men's  lives,  if  we  wish 
so  to  have  it. 


99 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  MEN  BEHIND  THE  DREADNAUGHTS 

I  once  lived  for  a  time  in  Pegli,  on  the  Gulf  of  Genoa, 
six  miles  west  of  the  city.  It  is  a  beautiful  place,  the 
"  rose  town "  of  Northern  Italy.  The  slope  of  the  hill 
facing  the  blue  Mediterranean  is  covered  with  the  villas 
and  elaborate  gardens  of  rich  Genoese.  At  these  the  roads 
cease,  and  he  that  goes  on  into  the  hills,  rising  higher  in 
successive  folds  behind  the  town,  must  make  his  way  on 
winding  footpaths,  good  to  climb  because  they  go  some- 
times among  thick  pines  and  sometimes  emerge  upon  a 
surpassing  view  of  the  Gulf  and  to  the  east  the  towers 
of  the  city.  Among  these  hills  you  come  sometimes  upon 
isolated  farmhouses,  where  people  live  in  a  kind  of  grapple 
for  existence,  and  one  such  dwelling  grew  particularly 
upon  my  notice. 

It  stood  in  a  little  ravine  so  that  a  six-inch  brook  ran 
past  its  door,  and  enabled  the  farmer  to  irrigate  his  fields 
(if  I  may  so  call  them),  which  were  about  the  size  of 
blankets  and  seemed  almost  perpendicular.  The  house  was 
of  plastered  stone,  two  stories  high,  the  lower  floor  de- 
voted to  the  cow,  the  pig,  and  the  donkey;  the  other 
(reached  by  a  ladder  through  this  menagerie)  being  the 
abode  of  the  family.  For  reasons  of  economy  in  regard 
to  an  ancient  window  tax,  the  house  had  been  built  with- 
out glazed  windows:  square  openings  had  wooden  shut- 
ters that  were  closed  in  bad  weather,  leaving  the  rooms 

100 


The  Men  Behind  the  Dread-naughts 

in  utter  darkness  except  for  the  single  beam  of  light  that 
entered  through  a  small  round  hole  in  the  shutter.  When 
the  cold  was  not  too  severe  the  shutter  was  opened  a 
few  inches  and  fastened  there,  an  arrangement  that  ad- 
mitted enough  light  to  cook  by,  and  a  trifle  of  fresh  air. 
The  presence  of  the  livestock  on  the  lower  floor  had 
strong  reasons  in  economy,  since  they  were  a  cheap  source 
of  heat;  an  advantage  that,  in  the  estimation  of  the 
family,  overbalanced  certain  drawbacks  apparent  to  the 
senses. 

Pietro  was  the  farmer's  name;  I  found  that  out  from 
hearing  his  wife  call  him  one  morning  when  he  was  hoeing 
something  at  the  lower  edge  of  the  farm.  He  had  for 
family  his  wife,  two  little  boys,  two  little  girls,  and  two 
old  women,  whom  I  subsequently  discovered  to  be  his 
mother  and  his  wife's  mother.  The  life  of  all  these  con- 
sisted merely  of  toil.  They  raised  two  and  three  crops 
a  year  from  their  microscopic  farm,  and  to  secure  the 
tilth  they  must  be  out  early  and  late,  belaboring  and 
turning,  and,  it  seemed  to  me,  beseeching  the  reluctant 
soil.  I  found  that  the  farmer  rented  the  place  (at  a 
heart-breaking  price)  from  the  owner  of  one  of  the  beau- 
tiful villas  that  sat  apart  and  from  a  nest  of  vivid  green 
looked  out  upon  the  sea.  This  owner  never  saw  Pietro 
nor  his  farm,  distributing  his  time  and  languid  presence 
between  Cairo  in  the  winter,  Pegli  in  the  spring,  Homburg 
in  the  summer,  and  Lugano  in  the  fall,  an  arrangement 
that  gave  him  little  opportunity  to  consider  the  sweaty 
tenants  whose  efforts  provided  him  with  these  and  other 
pleasures.  His  estate  at  Pegli  was  a  wonderful  thing; 
American  tourists  were  always  coming  to  see  it,  and  view- 
ing it  with  ecstasy,  and  wishing  they  had  something  like 
it  at  home.     I  was  told  that  the  place  produced  a  hundred 

101 


Why  1  Am  a  Socialist 

and  seven  varieties  of  roses,  and  the  owner  had  once  de- 
voted enough  attention  to  it  to  spend  $90,000  on, one  grotto. 

Up  at  Pietro's  house  there  were  no  roses  and  no  vistas; 
the  house  stood  four-square,  and  the  rooms  on  the  upper 
floor  were  hopelessly  barren  and  dismal.  There  was 
nothing  beautiful  to  look  at,  and  no  attempt  at  adorn- 
ment, except  a  crucifix  and  a  poor  little  picture  of  the 
Virgin.  In  these  forlorn  environments  even  the  sturdy 
Italian  spirit  had  been  crushed.  It  was  a  gaunt  and 
sad-eyed  family;  incessant  toil  without  relaxation,  with- 
out change,  without  hope,  and  without  joy  had  branded 
them  all  with  the  intellectual  debasement  that  pertains 
to  such  things.  Yet  they  were  of  a  good  sort,  warm- 
hearted, and  kindly,  only  battered  into  the  essential  state 
of  beasts  of  burden,  of  their  own  donkey,  if  you  please, 
by  the  monotony  of  their  lives  and  that  ceaseless  struggle 
for   bread. 

The  produce  of  the  farm  Pietro  carried  to  the  market 
of  Genoa  in  two  baskets  slung  one  on  either  side  of  his 
donkey.  To  get  to  the  market  early  enough  to  dispose 
of  his  handful  of  carrots  or  bunch  of  lettuce  he  must 
start  from  his  home  about  midnight.  Soon  afterward  (for 
I  lived  close  by  his  path)  I  could  hear  his  donkey's  feet 
clattering  downward  on  the  stones.  Before  noon  they 
would  be  coming  back,  Pietro  and  the  donkey,  the  paniers 
empty,  and  maybe  as  much  as  thirty  cents  in  the  farmer's 
pocket — to  be  laid  aside  for  the  rent,  I  suppose,  or  for 
taxes.  In  the  afternoon  he  would  be  out  on  his  farm, 
hoe  in  hand,  still  grappling  with  the  reluctant  soil.  In 
the  end  I  scraped  an  acquaintance  with  him  (no  difficult 
matter,  for,  like  most  of  his  race,  he  was  affable  and 
courteous),  chiefly  to  ask  him  one  question  that  I  had 
long  desired  to  put. 

102 


The  Men  Behind  the  Dreadnaughts 

"  Why  do  you  stay  here  in  these  conditions  ?  You  see 
how  hopeless  it  is.  You  work  hard  for  mere  bread,  your 
children  will  be  as  you  are,  only  very  likely  they  will  be 
in  still  worse  straits.  They  tell  me  your  taxes  grow; 
that  you  pay  the  tax-gatherer  more  than  your  father  paid, 
and  are  likely  to  pay  still  more.  Why  don't  you  leave 
it  all  and  go  to  America,  where  there  is  unlimited  oppor- 
tunity ?  " 

It  appeared  that  he  had  three  reasons.  First,  there 
was  the  place;  his  father  had  tilled  it  before  him  and 
his  grandfather.  Then  he  was  an  Italian;  his  father  had 
fought  for  Italy;  he  could  not  well  part  from  his  native 
land.  Then  to  go  away  he  would  need  much  money,  and  he 
had  none,  and  no  chance  to  get  any.  How,  then,  could 
one  travel?  There  were  many  mouths  to  feed  in  his 
family.  And  as  for  America,  his  cousin  Michael,  who 
lived  in  the  town,  had  been  in  America,  and  it  was  all 
just  the  same  there  as  here,  nothing  but  hard  work  for 
little  money,  so  that  Michael  was  glad  to  get  back  to 
Italy,  and  was  begging  all  his  friends  not  to  go  to  Amer- 
ica. So  he  would  go  on  as  he  was,  and  hope  with  the 
blessings  of  the  saints  to  pay  his  taxes  and  keep  the 
family  alive.  Perhaps  the  taxes  would  be  smaller  here- 
after, and  there  was  always  a  chance  that  the  children 
would  do  something.     Anyway,  Italy  was  Italy. 

I  tell  you  all  this  because  the  man  was  a  type.  I 
have  seen  many  of  his  kind,  and  so  has  every  other 
traveler. 

Now  there  was,  of  course,  more  than  one  reason  for 
his  poverty,  his  dreary  life  of  toil,  and  his  view  that  saw 
nothing  of  hope.  He  was,  in  the  first  place,  the  victim 
of  a  system,  exactly  like  hundreds  of  millions  of  other 
men  around  the  world;  exactly  like  the  vast  majority  of 

103 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

the  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  who  in  the  midst  of  abundance 
dwell  in  destitution,  and  with  light  enough  for  all  lead 
only  darkened  lives.  Like  all  the  others,  he  was  in  this 
respect  a  victim  of  the  capitalistic  organization  of  society 
that  is  steadily  at  work  everywhere  drawing  the  fruits 
of  the  earth  from  those  that  need  them  and  bestowing 
them  upon  those  that  need  them  not.  But  there  was  an- 
other factor  in  this  man's  condition,  and  I  desire  to  em- 
phasize it,  and  beg  for  it  the  attention  of  those  that,  in 
spite  of  their  reason  and  their  senses,  still  hold  the  exist- 
ing system  to  be  right. 

The  other  factor  was  his  taxes.  In  addition  to  the 
inevitable  burden  of  inequality  that  the  present  system 
always  imposes,  this  man  was  crushed  under  a  monstrous 
load  of  taxation.  When  from  the  produce  of  his  in- 
cessant grappling  he  had  paid  his  tribute  to  the  land- 
lord of  the  beautiful  villa,  about  one-half  of  the  poor 
remainder  must  go  in  some  form  to  the  government.  On 
everything  he  owned  and  everything  he  used,  from  the  pinch 
of  salt  wherewith  he  seasoned  his  scanty  food  to  the 
halter  wherewith  he  led  his  donkey,  there  was  levied 
tribute.  In  ways  visible  and  invisible  the  tax-gatherer  was 
always  taking  something  from  that  household.  Whenever 
Pietro  went  to  market  the  tax-gatherer  of  the  octroi  met 
him  at  the  city  gates  and  took  tribute  from  his  bunches 
of  carrots  and  heads  of  lettuce — took  it  for  the  govern- 
ment. If  he  bought  a  little  fiasco  of  cheapest  chianti 
the  tax-gatherer  took  something  of  it — for  the  government. 
If  he  wrote  a  letter  to  his  brother  in  Pra,  only  a  few 
miles  away,  he  must  put  on  his  letter  a  four-cent  stamp, 
of  which  two  cents  were  for  the  carrying  of  the  letter 
and  two  for  the  inevitable  tax-gatherer — for  the  govern- 
ment.    And  if  he   should   ever  go   anywhere  by   railroad 

104 


The  Men  Behind  the  Dreadnaughts 

train,  fourth-class,  and  standing  up  like  cattle  for  the 
market,  with  the  buying  of  his  ticket  he  must  pay  a  tax 
— for  the  government.  And  the  man  that  kept  the  little 
grocery  store  in  Pegli,  of  whom  Pietro  must  from  time 
to  time  buy  certain  little  things,  this  man,  too,  must  pay 
taxes  on  everything  he  bought  and  everything  he  sold. 
If  he  hung  up  posters  in  the  town  to  advertise  his  busi- 
ness he  must  pay  a  tax  on  each  poster;  when  a  customer 
paid  a  bill  and  took  a  receipt  he  must  pay  a  tax  on  that. 
Every  hour  the  tax-gatherer  was  taking  something  from 
the  grocer,  and  whatever  the  grocer  gave  to  the  tax- 
gatherer  that  the  grocer  took  again  from  Pietro  and  his 
kind — with  interest  and  profits  for  his  trouble.  And  all 
the  men  with  whom  Pietro  dealt  in  any  way  did  the  same; 
they  took  from  him  and  his  kind  all  the  money  that  the 
tax-gatherer  took  from  them — for  the  government.  For 
instance,  the  man  that  owned  the  great  villa  and  Pietro's 
farm;  he  must  pay  taxes  on  many  things  in  and  about 
the  villa,  but  all  of  these  he  passed  along  to  Pietro  and 
his  kind,  who  paid  all — for  the  government.  But  Pietro 
and  his  kind  could  not  pass  the  burden  along  like  the 
others.  When  the  burden  came  to  Pietro  and  his  kind  there 
was  nobody  left  to  pass  it  to;  so  they  paid  for  it  out 
of  their  labor,  their  daily  food,  the  rags  whereon  they 
slept,  the  dark  houses  in  which  they  lived,  the  nourish- 
ment and  the  education  of  their  children.  You  shall  not 
be  extravagant  if  you  say  they  paid  for  it  out  of  the 
blood  in  their  veins.  They  paid  for  it  all,  because  under 
the  present  system  of  society  matters  are  so  arranged 
everywhere  that  only  Pietro  and  his  kind  pay  any  of  these 
bills — for  the  government. 

And  what  does  the  government  do  with  all  the  money 
thus   wrung   from   Pietro   and   his   kind?      I   went  over   to 

105 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

Spezzia  that  winter  and  easily  discovered  there  what  the 
government  does  with  a  great  part  of  it.  The  great  gov- 
ernment shipyard  is  at  Spezzia,  and  the  hammers  were 
ringing  on  many  ships.  One  of  them  was  a  great  battle- 
ship; men  told  me  it  would  cost  $6,000,000 — of  Pietro's 
money.  There  was  also  a  cruiser,  a  great  and  splendid 
vessel,  almost  ready,  that  they  told  me  had  cost  $2,000,000 
— of  Pietro's  money — and  a  smaller  vessel  that  would  cost, 
or  had  cost,  $600,000 — also  of  Pietro's  money.  I  was 
told  that  the  next  year  the  government  would  lay  down 
a  battleship  that  would  cost  $8,000,000,  and  it  was  plan- 
ning or  hoping  for  one  after  that  to  cost  $10,000,000 — 
all  with  Pietro's  money,  and  every  year  more  money.  In 
ten  years  or  less  the  battleship  that  cost  $6,000,000  and 
was  now  nearly  ready  for  sea  would  be  worthless  and 
thrown  upon  the  junk  heap;  so  would  be  the  battleship 
that  cost  $8,000,000,  and  the  battleship  that  cost  $10,- 
000,000,  if  such  a  battleship  should  be  built.  Everybody 
in  the  government  knew  this,  but  nobody  in  the  govern- 
ment seemed  to  care.  All  plunged  ahead,  spending  Pietro's 
money.  Every  year  more  and  more.  And  as  for  Pietro, 
he  hung  upon  his  farm  and  arose  at  midnight,  and  grappled 
with  the  reluctant  soil,  and  furnished  the  money  with  his 
sweat  and  his  blood  and  his  life. 

Or  one  could  go  about  Spezzia  or  Genoa  or  any  other 
considerable  city  and  observe  where,  on  great  casernas 
and  vast  fortifications,  on  guns  and  marching  troops  and 
camps,  on  small  arms  and  uniforms  and  ammunition,  gov- 
ernment was  spending  other  millions  of  Pietro's  money. 
No  one,  noting  all  these  extensive  operations,  could  fail 
to  see  where  Pietro's  money  went,  but  in  the  mind  of 
every  observer  of  these  prodigies  must  at  once  arise  one 
question : 

106 


The  Men  Behind  the  Dreadnaughts 

Pietro  pays  for  all  this.  What  on  earth  does  Pietro 
get  from  it? 

He  pays  for  all;  he  arises  at  midnight  and  drives  his 
donkey  down  the  hill  and  then  six  miles  to  Genoa;  he 
lives  in  the  house  without  windows,  he  hangs  by  his  feet, 
and  with  his  two  hard  hands  he  grapples  with  the  re- 
luctant soil  that  he  may  get  the  money  wherewith  to  pay 
for  it. 

What  on  earth  for? 

What  are  all  to  him — battleships,  cruisers,  guns,  caser- 
nas,  troops,  great  and  small  arms,  uniforms,  ammunition, 
manoeuvres?  What  possible  advantage  do  they  bring  to 
him?  How  can  he  eat  them,  or  wear  them,  or  read  them, 
or  use  them  to  light  his  house,  or  educate  his  family? 
He  pays  for  all,  and  from  all  that  he  pays  for,  what 
one  least  thing  does  he  derive?  He  and  his  kind  make 
up  the  majority  of  the  people  of  Italy.  Their  government 
is  engaged  in  a  mad  race  with  other  governments  to  build 
(for  the  junk  heap)  the  biggest  battleships,  to  possess 
the  strongest  forts,  to  have  the  best  trained  army.  With 
36,000,000  people  and  little  wealth,  Italy  is  striving  to 
keep  pace  with  the  other  nations,  to  provide  as  much  for 
the  junk  heap  and  to  waste  as  much  energy  in  preparations 
for  murder.  And  for  these  rational  enterprises  Pietro  and 
his  kind  furnish  the  money — coined  as  aforesaid. 

For  what  possible  reason? 

Looking  at  the  matter  impartially,  nothing  that  is  said 
or  done  in  any  madhouse,  or  could  be  said  or  done  there, 
seems  so  insane  as  this.  In  1906  England  lays  down  a 
Dreadnaught  battleship;  Germany  responds  by  laying 
down  two.  To  preserve  her  lead  in  the  race  for  the  prize 
in  national  lunacy,  England  must  now  lay  down  three. 
Germany    responds    with    four,    and    England,    making    a 

107 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

gallant  effort  to  retrieve  herself  and  be  perfectly  dodder- 
ing, lays  down  six.  Whereupon  Germany  devises  the 
Super-Dreadnaught,  a  new  candidate  for  the  junk  heap 
much  more  terrible  than  anything  yet  invented,  and  the 
whole  game  must  begin  anew.  Meantime,  the  former  in- 
ventions are  either  to  be  thrown  away  or  they  become 
of  doubtful  utility.  They  have  cost  from  $5,000,000  to 
$10,000,000  each — of  the  toilers'  money. 

Meantime,  also,  the  other  nations  have  been  tearing 
frantically  along  in  the  race,  each  building  Dreadnaughts, 
and  each  trying  to  be  as  lunatic  as  its  resources  will  allow. 
Italy  lays  down  one  Dreadnaught  and  Austria  lays  down 
two,  both  countries  being  horribly  poor,  so  that  they  must 
wring  the  last  cent  from  Pietro  and  Franz  to  enjoy  these 
junk  heap  luxuries.  Japan  lays  down  three  that  the  world 
knows  of,  and  some  more  that  it  keeps  concealed.  America, 
cheering  wildly  for  blood  and  slaughter,  starts  two  every 
year,  although  her  navy  yards  are  littered  with  instructive 
junk  and  she  sorely  needs  money  for  education  and  for 
internal  improvements.  Neglecting  at  home  one  of  the 
most  terrible  and  insistent  problems  that  ever  confronted 
any  nation,  she  is  pouring  millions  into  a  useless  foreign 
possession  to  defend  which  she  is  told  she  must  have  many 
Dreadnaughts,  and  much  other  junk.  Poor  old  Russia 
extorts  more  money  from  the  Ivans  and  Michaels  of  her 
peasant  hovels  and  produces  a  new  species  of  extravagance. 
Spain  turns  the  rack  and  grinds  additional  millions  from 
her  starving  populations.  Every  few  days  a  South  Amer- 
ican republic,  poor  as  poverty,  gives  out  a  new  contract 
for  ships  and  guns ;  everywhere  the  news  that  one  govern- 
ment has  developed  a  new  form  of  mania  revives  the  frenzy 
in  another;  and  everywhere  the  toiler  surrenders  more  of 
the  fruits  of  his  toil  that  the  junk  heap  may  grow  and 

108 


The  Men  Behind  the  Dreadnaughts 

the  instinct  for  bloodshed  be  properly  nourished.  Com- 
pared with  all  this  Bedlam  seems  a  sweet  and  rational 
place. 

This  is  what  the  chief  nations  of  the  world  are  annually 
expending  in  the  armament  competition,  compared  with 
their  respective  debts  and  the  interest  paid  thereon: 

Annual  Military  Annual  Interest 

Expenditures  Debt  on  Debt 

Austria-Hungary   $  95,000,000  $  3,140,000,000    $  121,600,000 

Belgium    12,500,000  665,000,000  25,000,000 

Bulgaria   5,600,000  6,950,000  640,000 

Denmark   6,000,000  6,660,000  220,000 

France    205,000,000  5,435,400,000  246,400,000 

Germany 219,000,000  4,500,000,000  165,000,000 

Great  Britain   325,000,000  3,945,000,000  155,000,000 

Greece  6,000,000  179,000,000  7,320,000 

Holland    18,200,000  480,400,000  15,320,000 

Italy    85,000,000  2,604,400,000  115,400,000 

Norway  and  Sweden  .  27,500,000  188,600,000  7,320,000 

Portugal   13,000,000  800,000,000  24,400,000 

Roumania    9,000,000  287,000,000  10,680,000 

Russia   232,500,000  4,619,800,000  203,200,000 

Servia    4,000,000  1 10,000.000  5,000,000 

Spain     33,500,000  1,829,200,000  81,000,000 

Switzerland    6,500,000  20,400,000  1,200,000 

Turkey    24,000,000  474,000,000  23,900,000 

United  States  229,000,000  938,132,409  21,424,990 

The  military  expenditures  of  Europe  amount  to  $200,- 
000,000  a  year  in  excess  of  the  interest  on  the  national 
debts.  Here  is  forty  years'  increase  in  Europe's  national 
indebtedness : 

1866    $  5,320,000,000 

1906   29,600,000,000 

Here  is  forty  years'  increase  in  interest  charges: 

1866    $     480,000,000 

1906    1,200,000,000 

Here  is  forty  years'  increase  in  military  expenditure: 

1866   $    600,000,000 

1906    1,400,000,000 

109 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

Europe  has  five  million  men  at  all  times  practically  under 
arms. 

As  in  none  of  the  larger  countries,  with  the  possible 
exception  of  the  United  States,  is  the  ratio  of  increasing 
wealth  equal  to  the  ratio  of  increasing  military  expendi- 
tures and  to  the  ratio  of  increasing  debt  interest,  national 
bankruptcy  is  for  them  merely  a  question  of  time  if  the 
present  policy  be  maintained.  In  at  least  two  of  these 
nations  the  pinch  is  already  severely  felt;  Great  Britain 
and  Germany  seem  to  have  reached  the  limit  of  national 
resources:  and  whatever  they  waste  hereafter  on  Dread- 
naughts  and  the  like  must  needs  be  taken  out  of  the 
stamina  of  their  people. 

The  true  aspect  of  all  this  has  long  been  perceived  by 
thoughtful  men  in  all  the  countries,  who  have  steadily  in- 
sisted that,  aside  from  any  question  about  the  morality  of 
wholesale  murder  and  merely  on  the  cold  basis  of  dollars, 
the  nations  must  call  a  halt  in  the  race.  Few  of  these 
have  been  willing  to  denounce  the  cause  of  the  distemper, 
but  all  heartily  agree  in  denouncing  the  symptoms.  I 
will  now  give  an  illustration  of  what  may  be  expected 
of  all  such  attacks  on  the  symptoms  of  war,  with  the  more 
readiness  because  it  is  at  the  same  time  an  excellent  illus- 
tration of  the  true  reason  why  we  have  wars,  Dreadnaughts, 
and  military  expenditures. 

By  all  the  good  people  in  the  world  that  believe  things 
in  the  main  to  be  about  right  but  needing  perhaps  a  trifle 
of  tinkering,  the  International  Peace  Conference  that  met 
at  The  Hague  in  1907  was  hailed  with  the  greatest  satis- 
faction. Considering  the  modern  facilities  for  enlighten- 
ment, the  number  of  such  good  people  and  their  influence 
are  very  amazing.  They  exist  everywhere,  but  I  must 
suppose  a  larger  proportion  of  them  to  hold  forth  in  and 

110 


The  Men  Behind  the  Dreadnaughts 

bless  the  United  States  of  America  than  one  can  find  in  any- 
other  country.  Their  attitude  of  mind  seems  to  be  reached 
by  resolutely  shutting  their  eyes  to  the  existence  of  poverty, 
misery,  and  insufficiency  in  the  world,  and  by  holding  that 
whatever  little  improvements  are  needed  anywhere  to  bring 
us  up  to  perfection  are  to  be  supplied  through  the  medium 
of  a  few  great  and  good  men  that  they  either  have  placed 
or  hope  soon  to  place  in  authority  over  us. 

To  all  such  minds  the  Hague  Conference  was  a  grand 
event.  They  did  not  pretend  that  it  would  abolish  the 
military  frenzy,  but  they  thought  it  would  mitigate  war 
and  lead  us  eventually  to  a  state  in  which  we  shall  not 
wish  to  murder  our  brethren.  Not  too  quickly,  of  course; 
because  we  are  conservative  and  opposed  to  any  sudden 
changes,  even  the  leaving  off  of  habitual  murder;  but  even- 
tually; some  centuries  hence,  perhaps.  True,  nobody  knows 
now  just  what  the  Hague  Conference  did  to  further  these 
desirable  ends.  It  met,  it  spent  the  summer  in  debate,  it 
adjourned,  and  the  madness  of  war  expenditure  went  on 
unabated,  and  has  gone  on  ever  since.  Yet  to  the  con- 
servative mind  these  little  facts  are  not  for  the  impair- 
ment of  satisfaction.  The  Plague  Conference  met;  per- 
haps it  will  meet  again.  Let  us  rejoice.  But  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  Hague  Conference  was  not  really  called  for 
any  purpose  of  ending  or  of  discouraging  war  or  war  ex- 
penditure, but  for  quite  a  different  purpose,  as  will  appear 
to  anyone  that  will  contemplate  the  records. 

For  many  years  the  Interests  in  Europe  that  control  the 
money  supply  and  finance  the  nations  had  been  much  an- 
noyed by  the  difficulty  of  collecting  debts  in  certain  South 
American  countries.  The  great  banking  houses  (which 
really  sit  behind  the  scenes  and  pull  all  the  strings)  had 
been  driven  on  several  occasions  to  send  fleets  to  South 

111 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

America  and  threaten  or  bombard  cities  to  get  their  money 
back.  This  was  troublesome  and  expensive.  Sometimes  it 
did  not  work  very  well,  and  at  all  times  it  was  a  great 
nuisance,  so  the  Interests  seem  to  have  determined  to 
abolish  this  condition. 

The  year  before  the  Hague  Conference  met  there  was 
called  in  Rio  Janeiro  a  Pan-American  congress,  to  which 
all  the  nations  of  South,  Central,  and  North  America  were 
invited  to  send  delegates.  Rather  to  the  wonder  of  the 
experienced  observer,  the  government  of  the  United  States 
was  a  prime  mover  in  this  congress,  and  Mr.  Elihu  Root, 
then  Secretary  of  State,  attended  it  in  person  as  one  of 
his  country's  representatives.  There  were  two  reasons  why 
this  seemed  strange.  As  a  rule,  this  government  has  re- 
garded the  South  American  countries  with  neglect  or  in- 
difference, except  when  it  has  suited  our  purposes  to  steal 
a  canal  zone  or  foment  a  revolution;  and  the  sudden  access 
of  zeal  in  our  South  American  relations  was  a  rare  novelty. 
Furthermore,  for  a  Secretary  of  State  to  attend  such  a 
gathering  was  without  precedent,  and  seemed  all  the 
stranger  because  Mr.  Root's  career  had  not  revealed  any 
great  interest  in  statesmanship,  having  been  devoted  chiefly 
to  legal  services  for  certain  corporations  and  great  moneyed 
Interests  closely  allied  around  the  world.  Mr.  Root  not 
only  attended  the  Conference,  but  took  active  part  in  it, 
and  was  greatly,  and  no  doubt  justly,  praised  for  the  tact 
and  skill  that  he  displayed. 

Just  what  the  Congress  accomplished  in  other  ways  seems 
to  be  somewhat  vague,  although  its  mere  existence  gave 
much  joy  to  bromidic  believers  in  things  as  they  are.  In 
one  respect,  however,  its  achievements  were  of  the  order 
that  make  history.  It  adopted  an  agreement  to  the  effect 
that  hereafter  disputes  between  European  and  South  Amer- 

112 


The  Men  Behind  the  Dreadnaughts 

ican  countries  should  be  submitted  to  the  Hague  Confer- 
ence. Mr.  Root,  it  appears,  was  heartily  in  favor  of  this 
measure,  and  its  adoption  was  hailed  as  a  triumph  of  his 
ability  not  less  than  a  victory  for  the  cause  of  peace — to 
be  achieved  by  the  dosing  of  symptoms. 

The  Hague  Conference  met  the  next  year  and  discussed 
many  things,  doubtless  of  the  greatest  value  to  mankind, 
although  no  one  can  now  remember  what  they  were.  But 
its  true  function  was  performed  when  it  arranged  to  care 
for  the  South  American  disputes,  hereafter  to  be  settled  in 
a  European  tribunal  controlled  by  European  influences ;  and 
if  war  was  not  discouraged  at  least  European  bankers  were 
relieved  from  the  necessity  of  sending  fleets  to  South 
America  to  collect  debts. 

And  if  the  Conference  did  not  abolish  or  discourage  war, 
we  may  feel  quite  well  assured  that  in  this  respect  also 
its  deliberations  were  quite  satisfactory  to  the  Interests. 
These  cannot  very  well  at  present  desire  to  have  war  ex- 
penditures abolished.  Such  expenditures  are  enormously 
to  the  profit  of  the  European  banking  business.  Nations 
that  participate  in  the  Dreadnaught  race  must  be  financed; 
it  is  the  business  of  the  Interests  to  finance  nations;  there- 
fore, the  more  Dreadnaughts  the  more  financing.  If  they 
so  wished  these  Interests  could  abolish  war  to-morrow. 
Their  power  upon  all  the  governments  of  the  world  is  so 
irresistible  that  if  they  were  but  to  raise  a  hand  the 
armament  race  would  cease  and  militarism  decline.  No  one 
that  has  any  conception  of  the  real  governing  forces  of 
Europe  will  doubt  for  a  moment  that  this  is  so.  The 
Interests  do  not  stop  the  armament  race  because  it  is  profit- 
able to  them  to  have  it  continue.  Hence,  it  will  continue 
and  all  the  protests  and  declamations  against  it  are  but 
wasted  breath. 

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Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

So  long  as  we  maintain  the  present  organization  of  society 
we  shall  have  exactly  these  conditions,  and  it  is  right  that 
we  should  have  them.  The  foundation  stone  of  the  present 
social  system  is  competition;  war  is  the  highest  and  most 
perfect  expression  of  competition;  it  is  merely  competition 
carried  to  its  normal  development.  After  all,  to  kill  men 
on  the  battlefield  is  not  worse  than  to  starve  them,  or  to 
slaughter  them  in  the  dangerous  occupations,  or  to  make 
them  drag  out  wretched  lives  in  the  slums.  Business  com- 
petition does  these  things  daily,  but  we  shall  listen  in  vain 
for  any  particular  protest  against  them.  We  think  war 
is  worse  than  the  silent  slaughters  now  going  on  in  a 
thousand  factories  and  a  thousand  slums,  but  we  only  think 
so  because  there  is  more  fuss  made  about  the  noisier  battle- 
field. In  point  of  fact  the  difference  is  indiscernible: 
slaughter  is  slaughter,  however  achieved.  The  essence  of 
the  Competitive  System  is  cruelty.  In  what  respect  is 
war  more  cruel  than  poverty?  Competition  steels  men's 
hearts  against  one  another;  it  makes  them  indifferent  to 
the  suffering  of  others;  it  gives  them  no  object  in  life 
but  gain,  and  fosters  no  traits  but  greed,  individual  and 
national.  Then,  so  long  as  we  maintain  competition,  by 
what  right  shall  we  object  to  war,  which  is  nothing  but 
competition  in  its  final  form?  Or  if  we  really  desire  to 
abolish  war,  why  not  abolish  the  thing  that  alone  makes 
war?  And  if  we  will  not  abolish  the  cause  of  war,  shall 
we  not  look  rather  foolish  at  Carnegie  Hall  and  elsewhere 
declaiming  vehemently  for  peace? 

Many  persons  that  hold  fast  to  what  is  called  "  the 
glorious  spirit  of  optimism  "  and  believe  we  need  not  be 
disturbed  about  the  wrong  in  the  world,  habitually  refer 
much  to  the  assertion  that  war  is  diminishing  among  men, 
a  statement  from  which  they  seem  to  derive  a  great  and 

114 


The  Men  Behind  the  Dreadnaughts 

peculiar  satisfaction.  Perhaps  this  is  a  good  time  to  ex- 
amine for  a  moment  the  optimistic  philosophy,  for  here  is 
an  admirable  specimen  of  its  usual  procedure  upon  half 
truths  and  superficial  statements.  The  theory  of  the  de- 
cline of  war  has  two  branches.  First,  it  is  said  that 
modern  invention  and  skill  have  made  war  so  much  more 
terrible  and  costly  that  nations  will  not  again  engage  in 
it;  second,  that  the  improved  modern  spirit  has  so  much 
softened  the  horrors  of  war  that  we  can  hope  for  a  time 
when  this  process  of  amelioration  shall  abolish  it  altogether 
— or  perhaps  reduce  it  to  a  game  of  basketball.  You  will 
at  once  observe  that  the  two  branches  of  the  theory  do 
not  cohere,  and  I  should  in  fairness  explain  that  the  two 
are  not  usually  held  by  the  same  optimist;  some  optimists 
hold  to  one  and  some  to  the  other.  But  the  general  idea 
is  that  war  is  gradually  ceasing  among  us,  and  in  the  course 
of  time — perhaps  a  million  years — it  will  have  wholly  dis- 
appeared.    Therefore,  why  worry? 

But  has  the  attitude  of  the  nations  toward  war  really 
undergone  much  of  a  change?  War  costs  more  than  once 
it  cost — of  Pietro's  money — that  is  true;  to  fire  one  great 
gun  costs  now  almost  as  much  as  once  a  battle  cost.  But 
assuredly  the  great  guns  are  very  much  more  destructive 
than  the  guns  of  former  years,  and  neither  their  increased 
cost  nor  their  increased  destructiveness  has  deterred  the 
nations  from  gathering  large  supplies  of  them,  nor  did 
these  considerations  for  one  moment  hold  back  Japan  and 
Russia  from  flying  at  each  other  with  some  of  the  greatest 
guns  ever  made.  We  get  the  impression  that  war  is  de- 
tested by  the  governing  powers  because  kaisers  and  kings 
are  constantly  uttering  platitudinous  sentiments  in  favor 
of  peace,  while  they  are  unceasingly  preparing  for  war. 
Such  protestations  as  theirs  have   (with  the  assertions  of 

115 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

the  optimists)  resounded  for  generations  about  this  earth, 
filling  every  breathing  space  between  war  and  war  and  being 
without  other  meaning.  When  we  reflect  that  from  1837  to 
the  present  time  Great  Britain  has  fought  more  than  two 
hundred  campaigns,  and  that  there  has  hardly  passed  a 
day  when  some  of  the  great  civilized  nations  were  not 
making  war  upon  somebody  the  optimistic  vision  seems 
much  impaired.  Observe  the  dates  of  some  of  the  great 
wars  of  recent  times,  and  see  if  they  indicate  that  war  is 
decreasing: 

1856 — Crimean  war:  France,  England,  Turkey,  and  Sar- 
dinia against  Russia. 

1859 — France  and  Sardinia  against  Austria. 

1861-5 — Civil  war  in  America. 

1866 — Prussia  against  Austria. 

1870 — United  Germany  against  France. 

1877 — Russia  against  Turkey. 

1894 — Japan  against  China. 

1897 — Turkey  against  Greece. 

1898 — United  States  against  Spain. 

1899-1902 — Great  Britain  against  the  Boers. 

1904-5 — Japan  against  Russia. 

1909 — Spain  against  the  Riffians. 

This  seems  to  dispose  of  the  theory  that  war  is  ceasing 
on  earth  or  becoming  infrequent;  and  yet  this  is  a  very 
inadequate  list  of  the  world's  disturbances,  for  it  takes 
no  account  of  the  incessant  campaigning  of  the  Europeans 
against  the  brown  and  yellow  men,  of  the  wars  of  Great 
Britain  in  the  Indian  peninsula,  in  the  Soudan,  in  Burma, 
against  the  Maoris,  against  the  Chinese,  against  the  Zulus; 
of  the  campaigns  of  France  in  Tonkin,  of  Holland  in  Java, 
of  Italy  in  Abyssinia,  of  Germany  in  South  Africa,  the 

116 


The  Men  Behind  the  Dreadnaughts 

wars  of  the  South  American  states,  and  lesser  conflicts 
of  which  the  list  is  endless. 

The  truth  is  that,  while  we  are  holding  peace  conferences, 
peace  jubilees,  and  peace  dinners,  congratulating  ourselves 
on  the  decline  of  war  and  the  prospect  (somewhat  afar, 
it  is  admitted)  of  universal  amity,  the  sounds  of  conflict 
go  on  unceasing,  and  the  nations  rest  not  but  increase 
their  preparations  to  cut  one  another's  throats. 

As  to  the  diminished  cruelty  of  war  methods,  that  seems 
on  examination  an  idea  equally  fallacious.  In  the  old  days 
the  lines  of  battle  rushed  together  and  men  hewed  at  one 
another  with  their  swords.  To  the  optimistic  mind  that 
seems  very  terrible;  it  is  so  much  more  refined  to  stand 
off  six  miles  and  blow  one  another  to  pieces  with  lyddite 
shells  or  mow  down  our  enemies  with  the  Maxim  auto- 
matics. But  however  barbarous  the  custom  may  seem  of 
seizing  your  enemy  by  the  beard  and  striking  at  him  with 
a  sword,  it  was  very  much  less  dangerous  to  him  than  to 
blow  him  up  with  a  mine  or  to  riddle  him  with  Mausers.  In 
other  words,  the  manner  of  the  thing  has  been  refined;  the 
essence  of  it  is  worse. 

I  question  much  if  any  of  the  correspondents  that  fol- 
lowed the  Russo-Japanese  war  are  enthusiastic  supporters  of 
the  theory  that  modern  war  has  been  humanized:  the  things 
they  saw  seem  to  have  made  another  impression  upon  such 
of  the  correspondents  as  I  have  been  privileged  to  talk 
with.  I  was  in  Japan  just  after  the  close  of  the  war,  and 
saw  some  of  the  remains  of  Japanese  soldiers  brought 
home  for  burial,  an  arm  or  a  foot  or  a  cap  (being  all 
that  could  be  found  after  the  shell  exploded),  and  there 
was  nothing  about  these  spectacles  that  appealed  much 
to  one's  senses  as  remarkably  humane.  There  is  no  way, 
so  far  as   I  have  been  able  to  learn,  by  which  war  can 

117 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

be  made  anything  but  infinitely  horrible  in  all  its  stages 
and  phases;  General  Sherman's  definition  of  it  remains 
absolutely  correct  after  all  these  years  of  what  are  called 
humane  inventions  for  the  speedy  making  of  widows  and 
orphans;  and  there  still  remains  unchallenged  the  hideous 
indictment  that  for  this  also  the  system  called  Capitalism 
is  responsible. 

And  yet  even  war  is  doomed  with  the  system  that  pro- 
duces it;  not  by  foolish,  mouthing  Hague  Conferences, 
nor  by  the  resounding  platitudes  of  Carnegie  Hall,  but 
by  something  of  far  greater  importance  to  the  human  race 
than  all  the  peace  conferences  that  have  ever  assembled. 

I  shall,  for  two  reasons,  paraphrase  from  Mr.  London's 
"  The  Iron  Heel "  the  illustration  of  the  standard  theory 
of  the  unconsumed  surplus,  first,  because  it  is  there  set  forth 
as  clearly  and  as  concisely  as  it  can  possibly  be  framed  in 
words,  and  then  because  any  other  attempt  at  a  brief 
statement  of  the  principle  involved  must  seem  like  an  in- 
fringement upon  Mr.  London's  work. 

Let  us  put  the  matter  in  this  way: 

Take  the  United  States  of  America  as  a  fair  type  of 
the  modern  developed  nation.  We  produce  in  the  United 
States  annually,  let  us  say,  four  billion  dollars  of  wealth 
of  all  kinds — farm  products,  manufactured  articles,  and 
what  not.  Now  the  wage  earners  of  the  country,  who 
compose  about  85  per  cent,  of  the  population,  receive  in 
wages  and  salaries  approximately  two  billion  dollars  a 
year.  Obviously,  then,  they  can  consume  each  year  no 
more  than  two  billion  dollars'  worth  of  the  produced  wealth, 
because  certainly  they  cannot  buy  more  than  the  amount 
represented  by  their  total  income.  This  leaves  50  per  cent, 
of  the  wealth  to  be  consumed  by  15  per  cent,  of  the 
population.      Of   course    such    consumption    is    impossible, 

118 


The  Men  Behind  the  Dreadnaughts 

and  there  is  left  every  year  a  bulk  of  unconsumed  products 
amounting  to  not  far  from  one-half  of  the  whole. 

This  unconsumed  surplus  we  ship  abroad,  chiefly  in  the 
form  of  grain,  meat,  cattle,  and  manufactures.  There  it 
is  exchanged  into  the  unconsumed  surpluses  of  other  coun- 
tries, because  nearly  all  of  the  nations  of  Europe  are  in 
the  same  condition  that  we  are  in:  that  is  to  say,  they 
are  producing  more  than  they  consume  and  every  year 
each  of  them  has  an  unconsumed  surplus  of  which  she 
must  dispose.  Thus  the  unconsumed  wheat  of  America 
may  be  exchanged  into  the  unconsumed  cloth  of  Great 
Britain,  or  the  unconsumed  wine  of  France,  or  the  un- 
consumed oranges  of  Italy,  or  the  unconsumed  steel  of 
Germany;  but  it  is  still  an  unconsumed  product,  and  in 
one  shape  or  another  it  goes  about  the  world  until  it 
reaches  a  country  that  consumes  more  than  she  produces, 
and  there  it  is  finally  consumed.  Against  this  consumption 
are  issued  the  evidences  of  debt,  that  is  to  say,  bonds, 
which  are  transferred  to  a  nation  that  had  an  unconsumed 
surplus,  and  where  the  financiers  operate  profitably  with 
them. 

All  this  is  quite  clear  and  very  well.  But  the  trouble 
is  that  the  number  of  these  countries  that  consume  more 
than  they  produce  is  steadily  diminishing,  because  they 
are  the  undeveloped  countries,  and  all  undeveloped  coun- 
tries tend  to  become  developed.  Thus,  for  a  long  time 
the  countries  of  South  America,  Argentina,  Brazil,  Chili, 
and  so  on  were  excellent  consuming  countries  and  dis- 
posed annually  of  much  surplus  from  the  European  circuit. 
Within  the  last  few  years  several  of  these  countries  have 
been  developed  so  that  their  capacity  as  surplus  consumers 
has  almost  vanished.  Japan  was  for  many  years  a  grand 
place  in  which  to  dump  our   surplus   products;   she   has 

119 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

now  surplus  products  of  her  own  to  dump  upon  other  peo- 
ple. As  fast  as  a  country  becomes  developed  she  ceases 
to  consume  the  surpluses  of  other  nations  and  begins  to 
produce  a  surplus  of  her  own — to  the  growing  perplexity 
and  distress  of  the  world. 

This  process  has  already  had  some  remarkable  results 
and  some  very  instructive  illustrations  well  worth  attention 
on  their  own  account.  For  example,  it  renders  perfectly 
clear  certain  eccentricities  of  foreign  policy  otherwise 
merely  hopeless  riddles.  The  real  concern  about  the 
awakening  of  China  is  not  lest  she  should  overrun  Europe 
with  her  armed  hordes,  which  is  merely  a  fantastic  dream 
of  the  war-makers,  but  lest  she  should  cease  to  consume 
the  surplus  products  of  Europe  and  America  and  begin 
to  produce  a  surplus  of  her  own.  Therefore,  the  whole 
of  our  uproar  about  "  the  open  door  "  in  China  (a  thing 
in  which  we  had  ostensibly  not  the  least  interest  in  the 
world)  had  in  view  this  contingency,  and  nothing  else. 
"  The  open  door  "  was  to  let  in  the  surplus  products  of 
civilization  already  seriously  threatened  by  advancing  de- 
velopment in  so  many  countries. 

Because  the  number  of  undeveloped  countries  where  sur- 
pluses can  be  dumped  is  strictly  Mmited;  no  more  new 
worlds  can  be  discovered;  and  there  is  impending  a  situa- 
tion that  ought  to  cause  the  gravest  concern  to  every  person 
that  believes  in  the  existing  order  of  things. 

A  little  incident  that  occurred  in  the  year  of  grace, 
1909,  and  passed  almost  unremarked,  contained  an  ex- 
pression of  the  whole  situation.  One  of  the  notable 
phases  of  the  awakening  of  China  is  the  development  of 
an  ability  to  finance,  organize,  build,  and  operate  railroads 
without  European  assistance.  The  construction  of  the  Can- 
ton-Hankow line  in  this  manner  was  a  fact  extremely  dis- 

120 


The  Men  Behind  the  Dreadnaughts 

agreeable  to  European  financial  interests;  it  looked  too 
ominous.  At  the  beginning  of  last  year  China  was 
ready  to  launch  similarly  the  new  Hankow-Szechuan  rail- 
road. At  this  the  European  and  American  bankers  went 
to  the  extraordinary  length  of  protesting.  They  wanted 
some  of  the  good  bonds  that  would  necessarily  be  issued 
for  the  work.  I  know  of  nothing  that  gives  a  better  notion 
of  the  international  pact  of  the  Moneyed  Interests  and  the 
tremendous  power  it  exerts  than  the  fact  that  President 
Taft  was  induced  to  send  a  personal  telegram  to  the  Regent 
of  China  asking  that  American  capital  be  admitted  to  the 
enterprise.  The  Chinese  government  seems  to  have 
yielded,  as  it  generally  yields  to  foreign  pressure,  but  not 
with  very  good  grace,  for  it  has  evidently  adopted  a  policy 
that  will  exclude  foreign  exploitation.  We  have  in  the 
past  counted  much  on  this  Chinese  habit  of  yielding.  Un- 
less the  present  Chinese  activities  are  very  deceptive,  the 
time  is  not  far  off  when  China  will  cease  to  yield.  And 
about  that  time  look  out  for  squalls.  Sixty  years  ago 
Great  Britain  thought  it  but  fun  to  force  upon  China  with 
guns  and  battleships  the  surplus  opium  product  of  India. 
You  may  have  noticed  that  when  in  1907  China  renewed 
the  exclusion  of  opium,  Great  Britain  did  not  care  to 
go  to  war  over  this  loss  of  surplus  consumption. 

Other  signs  multiply  upon  him  that  will  take  notice. 
It  is  most  significant  that  at  the  time  when  the  previously 
undeveloped  countries  are  ceasing  to  consume  our  sur- 
pluses a  great  wave  of  business  depression  sweeps  over 
all  the  surplus  producing  countries ;  there  is  loud  complaint 
of  the  accumulation  of  the  unconsumed  surplus,  and  pro- 
duction is  retarded  everywhere  until  consumption  can  catch 
up  with  production.  It  is  the  first  time  this  has  happened 
around    the   world;    it    cannot    have   happened    without   a 

121 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

cause.  For  the  time  being  the  closing  of  factories  and 
the  restriction  of  hours  of  work  avail  much  toward  the 
restoring  of  the  balance,  although  at  a  heavy  cost  of  suf- 
fering; but  the  fatal  fact  is  that  exactly  this  situation  is 
certain  to  recur  more  and  more  frequently  as  the  field  of 
surplus  consumption  continues  to  narrow.  Some  time,  per- 
haps only  a  generation  hence,  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth  will  be  surplus  producing  countries,  and  there  will 
be  no  corner  in  which  they  can  get  rid  of  their  surpluses. 
The  present  system  of  production  will  then,  of  course, 
break  down.  By  no  conceivable  chance  can  it  continue 
when  there  is  no  consumption  of  its  surplus,  because  it  is 
from  the  consumption  of  the  surplus  that  capital  draws 
the  profits  that  alone  are  the  occasion  of  its  existence. 
When  these  profits  are  abolished  Capitalism  is  abolished, 
and  the  world  will  necessarily  pass  to  a  new  basis  of  in- 
dustry. And  when  Capitalism  is  abolished,  war,  poverty, 
destitution,  slums,  insufficiency,  most  of  the  crime,  and 
much  of  the  disease  in  the  world  will  be  abolished  also. 

The  only  question  is,  since  these  things  are  inevitable 
in  the  process  of  time,  why  should  we  wait  until  at  an 
enormous  cost  in  suffering  and  lives  the  doomed  and 
wretched  system  works  out  its  own  destruction?  Why  not 
end  it  now?  From  its  inception  it  has  wrought  upon 
earth  only  fathomless  evil.  All  other  sorrows  that  afflict 
mankind — parting,  disease,  the  chances  of  accident,  and  the 
perils  of  the  elements — are  less  than  this  one  black  curse, 
for  the  sake  of  which  the  majority  of  men  live  in  darkness 
and  pain. 


122 


CHAPTER  VIII 


TWO  TYPICAL  WARS 


In  May,  1900,  I  was  at  Exeter,  England.  Going  into 
the  hotel  one  morning  I  was  closely  followed  by  the  post- 
man; him  a  pleasant- faced  young  woman  ran  eagerly  to 
meet.  As  I  stepped  upon  the  stairs  I  heard  behind  me 
a  poignant  cry  and  turned  to  see  the  young  woman's 
body  falling  to  the  floor  as  if  she  had  been  struck  with 
a  hammer.  She  was  quite  unconscious  when  we  got  to 
her,  and  when  she  was  revived  it  was  to  go  into  hysteria. 
At  intervals  that  night  and  afterward  her  sobbing  re- 
sounded through  the  hotel,  and  when  I  came  back  next 
year  I  was  not  astonished  to  find  that  she  was  dead.  It 
was  her  brother  in  South  Africa — they  were  two  orphans, 
alone  in  the  world;  he  had  been  shot  dead  in  a  charge, 
and  the  word  of  it  had  stretched  out  a  great  fist  and 
bludgeoned  her  to  death  in  England. 

One  woman's  sorrow.  I  know  it  seems  foolish  to  weigh 
that  against  the  mighty  purposes  of  great  empires.  It 
is  from  blood  and  tears  and  the  crushing  of  lives  that 
empires  are  always  built,  and  in  no  other  way.  Would 
you  have  us  desist  from  the  building  of  empires  because 
of  a  few  ruined  lives?  To  build  empires  is  the  grandest 
object  of  the  human  race,  and  justifies  any  means.  God 
knows  what  good  they  do  in  this  His  world,  nor  why  we 
should  look  upon  them  with   pride;   but   empire   builders 

123 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

we  must  be.  Therefore,  let  the  women  weep,  and  the 
building  go  on. 

You  go  about  England  now  and  see  in  all  the  parish 
churches,  and  in  the 'cathedrals,  and  in  St.  Paul's,  and  here 
and  there,  fresh  brass  tablets,  "  Sacred  to  the  Memory  of 
Captain  Henry  Sanderson,  late  of  His  Majesty's  — th 
Regiment,  who  fell  gallantly  fighting  at  Spion  Kop,"  and 
the  like.  And  every  one  of  these  is  cemented  and  sealed 
and  bathed  in  tears  and  blood.     "  Sacred  to  the  memory 

of ,  who  died  of  enteric  at  Bloomfontein  " — 

"  who  died  of  enteric  at  Cape  Town  " — "  who  died  of 
enteric  "  somewhere  else.  It  is  a  very  ghastly  showing. 
All  young  men,  no  doubt;  bright,  able,  capable  young  men, 
or  they  would  not  be  officers  in  the  army;  all  laying  their 
lives  and  the  tribute  of  so  much  sorrow  on  this  one  altar 
of  empire. 

What  was  it  all  about,  and  what  was  gained  by  all  these 
butcheries  in  the  field,  and  these  terrible  death  rolls  in 
the  enteric  hospitals,  and  these  so  many  homes  of  England 
made  wretched?  What  was  the  harvest  of  so  much  sorrow? 
What  good  did  it  do? 

Not  long  after  that  scene  in  Exeter  I  went  up  to  London. 
We  got  news  one  morning  of  the  triumphal  entry  into 
Pretoria.  Before  noon  there  were  signs  of  a  public  demon- 
stration, buildings  blossoming  with  bunting,  men  ceasing 
to  work,  and  people  trooping  idly  along  the  streets.  I 
had  an  errand  to  old  St.  Saviour's,  Southwark.  About 
three  o'clock  I  started  to  return.  With  difficulty  I  made 
my  way  across  London  Bridge.  The  'buses  were  already 
off  the  streets.  No  cab  was  in  sight.  The  bridgeway  was 
filled  with  a  dense  mob  that  shouted,  shrieked,  and  danced 
in  glee,  tearing  off  one  another's  hats  and  coats,  drinking 
from  bottles,  red-faced  and  mad-eyed  and  libidinous,  beat- 

124. 


Two  Typical  Wars 

ing  one  another  with  bunches  of  feathers,  laughing  im- 
moderately at  nothing,  already  more  than  half  drunk,  and 
dangerous.  At  the  Middlesex  end  of  the  bridge  I  saw 
that  further  progress  in  the  main  thoroughfares  was  im- 
possible; to  the  end  of  one's  vision  in  any  direction  there 
was  a  sea  of  faces,  packed  in  the  streets  where  all  vehicular 
traffic  was  abandoned;  an  insensate  crowd  howling  with 
mad  delight,  and  many  already  unable  to  care  for  them- 
selves. I  steered  off  to  the  left  and  threaded  one  side 
street  after  another,  even  then  not  wholly  safe.  At  inter- 
vals I  would  have  a  glimpse  of  Cannon  Street,  Ludgate 
Hill,  or  Fleet  Street,  and  could  see  something  of  the 
antics  of  the  mob,  and  all  the  time  went  up  the  roar 
of  a  million  voices.  Sometimes  a  detachment  of  the  cele- 
brators  would  dash  into  a  side  street,  seize  a  cab,  hurl 
the  driver  to  the  pavement,  and,  climbing  upon  the  vehicle, 
parade  with  it  to  and  fro.  If  there  were  a  passenger 
he  might  follow  the  cabman,  or  if  he  protested  his  clothes 
might  be  torn  from  him,  or  his  face  covered  with  filth. 

The  crowds  and  the  furious  merriment  increased  as  night 
came  on.  All  the  way  from  London  Bridge  to  Piccadilly 
Circus  and  beyond  the  streets  were  impassable.  Men  and 
women  rolled  in  the  gutter,  helplessly  drunk.  Bottles 
passed  from  hand  to  hand  in  the  crowd.  Piccadilly  Circus 
was  jammed  with  people  and  deafening  with  uproar.  Be- 
fore long  the  fountain  in  the  center  was  covered  with  the 
rags  of  clothes  torn  from  persons  that  the  mob  had  made 
the  objects  of  its  rough  humor.  There  was  little  sleep  any- 
where in  London  that  night;  the  noise  resounded  to  the 
suburbs ;  it  was  estimated  that  a  million  persons  were  drunk. 

Surely  it  must  have  been  a  great  and  marvelous  triumph 
to  call  forth  such  great,  if  somewhat  disorderly  joy,  and 
to  be  celebrated  with  such  unusual  and  vehement  enthusi- 

125 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

asm.  The  celebrators  must  have  gained  an  enormous  ad- 
vantage, some  important  cause  must  have  gone  forward,  the 
poor  wretches  that  dwell  in  the  slums  of  Stepney  and 
Shoreditch  must  have  perceived  at  last  something  of  hope 
and  the  promise  of  release  from  their  torments.  They 
must  have  seen  that  in  the  conquest  of  Pretoria  they  had 
won  something;  their  interests  had  in  some  way  been  at 
stake,  and  now  they  had  triumphed. 

How  well  founded  such  a  view  would  be  we  can  readily 
see  if  we  review  the  history  of  this  war,  interesting  in  itself, 
and  forever  memorable  as  the  perfect  example  of  the  origin 
of  modern  warfare. 

Back  of  every  government  in  the  world  (under  the  pres- 
ent system)  is  a  power  seldom  seen  but  always  at  work, 
much  stronger  and  more  subtle  than  any  government,  a 
power  that  we  usually  recognize  by  the  name  of  the  Finan- 
cial Interests.  What  we  mean  by  that  term  is  the  great 
power  of  accumulated  capital  that  resides  in  the  world's 
leading  banks.  These  banks  necessarily  exercise  a  potent 
influence  upon  the  affairs  of  men,  because  they  control  the 
supply  of  money  without  which  (under  the  present  system) 
business  is  impossible.  The  men  that  manipulate  this 
money  supply  find  it  a  source  of  great  profit,  and  as 
the  profits  increase  their  power  also  grows  to  make  more 
profits. 

A  great  part  of  this  power  of  money  control  has  for 
generations  resided  in  England.  Within  the  last  thirty 
years  it  has  seemed  to  the  men  possessing  this  control, 
and  particularly  to  those  in  England,  that  their  interests 
would  be  furthered  if  the  world  had  a  single  monetary 
standard.  They  have,  therefore,  induced  all  the  civilized 
nations,  one  after  another,  to  demonetize  silver  and  adopt 
gold  as  the  one  standard  of  value. 

126 


Two  Typical  Wars 

This  greatly  simplified  the  control  of  the  money  supply, 
and  reduced  it  to  comparatively  few  hands.  It  happened 
that  with  few  exceptions  the  great  gold  fields  of  the  world 
belonged  to  Great  Britain  or  to  the  United  States,  and  it 
was  English  and  American  bankers  that  were  most  con- 
cerned about  securing  the  single  monetary  standard.  Aus- 
tralia, New  Zealand,  British  Columbia,  British  Honduras, 
British  Guiana,  Burma,  were  British  territory;  the  gold 
fields  of  California,  Nevada,  Alaska,  South  Dakota,  be- 
longed to  the  United  States.  The  world's  supply  of  silver 
was  widely  distributed,  and  much  of  it  was  in  regions 
where  it  could  not  easily  be  controlled,  as  in  South  Amer- 
ica and  Mexico,  where  the  people  had  on  historic  occa- 
sions shown  a  resentment  against  European  interference. 
But  the  gold  supply  lay  largely  in  the  countries  I  have 
named,  and  these  were  either  British  or  American.  When, 
therefore,  the  world  went  upon  a  gold  basis  it  was  obliged 
to  come  for  its  gold  supply  mainly  to  British  or  American 
sources,  and  of  these  the  British  were  preponderating. 
To  this  there  was  one  great  and  notable  exception.  The 
rich  gold  deposits  of  South  Africa  lay  in  the  territory 
of  the  Transvaal,  or  South  African  Republic,  although  they 
were  worked  almost  entirely  with  British  capital. 

There  was  another  matter  that  was  both  a  cause  and 
a  convenient  excuse  for  the  trouble  that  followed.  The 
Transvaal  was  a  country  of  the  Boers,  a  religious,  liberty- 
loving,  and  agricultural  people  that  cared  little  for  gold 
hunting  and  desired  only  their  freedom  and  to  possess 
their  homes  in  peace.  They  looked  with  disfavor  on  the 
methods  pursued  by  the  British  companies,  and  made  laws 
strictly  regulating  the  mining  processes.  These  laws  were 
regarded  by  the  mine  owners  (who  were  financed  and 
controlled  by  the   Interests)   as  irksome  because  they  re- 

127 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

duced  profits  and  interfered  with  dividends.  The  Re- 
public sought  to  derive  revenue  from  the  gold  that  was 
being  taken  from  its  soil,  and  these  exactions  were  a  further 
source  of  annoyance  to  the  companies.  One  tax  was 
in  the  shape  of  the  government  ownership  of  the  dynamite 
industry  whereby  the  price  of  dynamite  (an  indispensable 
requisite  in  mining)  was  enhanced.  The  mine  owners  took 
the  position  that  they  ought  to  be  allowed  to  buy  their 
dynamite  wherever  they  pleased.  If  a  man  in  France, 
Austria,  or  Italy  should  assume  a  like  attitude  in  regard 
to  his  purchases  of  tobacco,  or  should  denounce  the  gov- 
ernment of  Italy,  for  instance,  as  an  intolerable  tyranny 
because  it  carried  on  the  country's  tobacco  trade,  he  would 
be  regarded  as  a  kind  of  maniac;  but  a  great  part  of 
the  British  press  took  very  seriously  the  mine  owners' 
protests  against  the  Transvaal's  dynamite  monopoly. 

A  still  more  troublesome  matter  was  the  government's 
regulations  in  regard  to  labor,  which  were  so  drawn  that 
Kaffirs  (the  lowest  type  of  natives)  could  not  be  employed 
in  the  mines.  This,  as  it  effectually  prevented  any  cheap 
labor  and  greatly  increased  the  cost  of  mining  while  it  de- 
creased the  dividends,  was  the  mine  owners'  chief  grievance, 
although  it  was  the  grievance  of  which  for  certain  reasons 
they  said  the  least  in  public.  To  explain  why  the  Boers 
opposed  cheap  or  Kaffir  labor  I  should  have  to  tell  the 
story  of  the  Kimberly  mines,  and  the  famous  incident 
of  "  David's  bones,"  which  would  lead  us  too  far  astray, 
and  probably  be  unnecessary.  Anyone  that  knows  the 
horrors  of  Kimberly  will  readily  understand  what  was  also 
involved  here. 

The  Financial  Interests,  therefore,  had  two  reasons  for 
desiring  the  Transvaal  Republic  to  be  abolished.  The 
Republic  was  an  outsider  in  the  control  of  the  gold  supply, 

128 


Two  Typical  Wars 

and  it  made  mining  expensive  to  the  companies  that  the 
Interests  had  financed.  It  was,  of  course,  but  natural 
that  the  Interests  should  force  the  hand  of  the  British 
Government  to  work  its  will;  natural,  and  not  difficult. 
The  same  or  similar  Interests  had  never  failed  to  coerce 
any  government.  In  this  instance,  the  first  thing  that  the 
situation  demanded  was  that  the  British  people  should  be 
deceived  and  their  minds  inflamed  against  the  Boers;  for 
in  England  a  government  cannot  usually  last  very  long  if 
it  has  not  the  support  of  the  people.  Accordingly,  through 
the  part  of  the  press  that  the  Interests  directly  controlled, 
the  people  were  led  to  believe  that  the  Boers  were  very 
ignorant,  besotted,  arrogant  people,  half  savage,  and  in- 
tolerably oppressive  of  the  British.  Looking  back  now 
it  is  easy  to  see  every  step  in  these  adroitly  managed 
manoeuvres,  and  the  outcome  is  most  natural  and  instructive. 

In  December,  1895,  an  adventurer  named  Jameson  or- 
ganized a  band  of  his  countrymen  in  a  British  territory 
adjoining  the  Transvaal  and  made  a  raid  into  the  Re- 
public, hoping  to  capture  it.  There  is  good  reason  to 
believe  he  was  not  acting  without  the  connivance  of  his 
government,  although  ostensibly  he  was  merely  a  filibuster. 
The  Boers  defeated  Jameson  and  took  him  prisoner.  Under 
the  rules  of  nations  they  might  justly  have  shot  him.  With 
great  magnanimity  they  turned  him  over  to  Great  Britain 
for  trial  and  punishment.  The  proceedings  were  chiefly 
farcical.  Jameson  was,  indeed,  found  guilty,  but  he  was 
condemned  to  a  merely  nominal  imprisonment,  from  which 
he  was  almost  immediately  released  on  a  ridiculous  pre- 
tense about  his  health. 

This  incident  was  made  use  of  still  further  to  incense 
the  British  mind  against  the  Boers.  It  was  represented 
that   Jameson   and   his   band   had   merely   revolted  against 

129 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

a  brutal  and  odious  tyranny,  that  they  had  made  a  brave 
effort  for  the  cause  of  freedom,  and  their  exploit  (however 
mean  and  shabby  it  may  now  look)  was  pictured  as  the 
brave  but  unfortunate  effort  of  men  sorely  beset.  Most 
of  the  world  accepted  this  balderdash  at  its  face  value, 
with  much  more  of  the  same  sort.  For  instance,  we  were 
daily  told  that  the  British  in  the  Transvaal  were  in  the 
position  of  the  revolting  American  Colonists  under  George 
the  Third,  that  they  were  contending  for  the  same  high 
principle  against  similar  odds,  and  that  the  friends  of 
freedom  everywhere  should  be  on  their  side.  No  one  need 
now  be  blamed  for  the  conducting  of  this  campaign  of 
falsehoods,  and  no  one  for  being  deceived  by  it,  since  it 
is  an  inevitable  incident  of  the  present  system,  and  the 
like  of  it  exists,  or  may  exist,  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 
The  development  of  the  organized  news  service  has  now 
reached  such  a  stage  that  a  single  influence  can  sway  or 
poison  the  minds  of  literally  millions  of  readers  around 
the  world,  and  the  editors  of  the  very  papers  thus  utilized 
may  be  as  ignorant  as  their  readers  of  the  contaminated 
news  they  are  printing.  It  is  like  a  spring  from  which 
all  the  world  daily  drinks ;  one  drop  of  poison  in  the  foun- 
tain may  infect  myriads,  and  yet  no  eye  behold  the  hand 
that  manipulates  the  poison.  Since  the  beginning  of  the 
world  there  has  been  no  such  power  as  this.  A  paragraph 
given  this  morning  to  the  news  agencies  in  London  is  read 
within  twenty-four  hours  by  millions  upon  millions  of 
people  residing  in  every  civilized  country  on  this  globe 
and  speaking  every  language.  It  goes  successively  through 
the  European  countries;  it  is  translated  into  Portuguese 
and  Finnish,  Dutch,  Turkish,  and  Russian;  it  is  discussed 
to-morrow  morning  in  the  cafes  of  Madrid  and  the  cafes 
of  Odessa;   it  is   printed   in   Cairo   and   Teheran;   it   goes 

ISO 


Two  Typical  Wars 

through  Siberia  to  Vladivostok,  and  by  way  of  Egypt  to 
populous  India.  It  is  printed  in  Cingalese  and  Burmese; 
it  goes  through  Australia  and  New  Zealand;  it  reaches 
China,  and  is  cried  on  the  streets  of  Japanese  cities. 
And  just  as  the  thought  of  that  paragraph  is  framed 
myriads  of  people  will  think;  they  will  get  from  it  an 
opinion  that  may  control  destiny. 

Who  ordinarily  sways  this  incomparable  power?  Here 
is  a  question  well  worth  every  man's  pondering.  Armies 
and  battleships  and  forts  are  nothing  compared  with  this 
dominion  over  the  thought  of  civilized  mankind.  The 
mind  that  can  sway  this  force  is  the  emperor  of  the  world. 
No  other  empire  ever  established  or  dreamed  of  is  fit  to 
be  mentioned  with  this.  Day  by  day  it  can  make  history 
what  it  will,  inform  the  world  or  delude  it,  stop  progress 
or  accelerate  it.  And  as  to  the  hands  in  which  it  chiefly 
lies  and  the  cause  in  which  it  is  commonly  exerted  you 
can  see  very  plainly  from  this  chapter  of  history.  From 
the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  incident  the  news  sources 
were  so  cleverly  controlled  on  behalf  of  the  Interests  that 
the  sympathies  of  much  of  the  world  were  perverted. 

In  1899  the  British  government  took  up  more  seriously 
the  so-called  grievances  of  British  residents  in  the  Trans- 
vaal, and  particularly  the  question  of  naturalization.  At 
that  time  the  naturalization  of  foreigners  was  achieved  after 
nine  years  of  residence,  but  any  foreigner  might  be  natural- 
ized at  any  time  if  he  performed  a  meritorious  service  for 
the  Republic.  The  British  demanded  that  the  probationary 
term  be  shortened.  In  response,  the  Boers,  who  seem 
throughout  the  whole  controversy  to  have  borne  themselves 
with  singular  patience,  made  many  concessions.  Nothing 
seemed  to  satisfy  the  British  representatives  and  at  last 
they  demanded  that  British  subjects  in  the  Transvaal  should 

131 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

be  admitted  to  the  franchise  without  foreswearing  their 
allegiance  to  Great  Britain. 

At  this,  of  course,  there  was  an  end  of  negotiation.  No 
government  on  earth  could  grant  any  such  demand  and 
retain  its  own  existence.  What  was  really  asked  was  that 
the  Transvaal  government  should  surrender  itself  to  Great 
Britain  and  sign  its  own  death  warrant.  President  Kruger 
said  with  memorable  and  pathetic  dignity,  "  I  see  that  noth- 
ing will  satisfy  you  but  the  destruction  of  my  country." 
Soon  after  the  war  began.  None  of  the  facts  about  the 
true  nature  of  the  negotiations  was  known  to  the  world 
until  long  afterward. 

The  war  continued  three  years.  Its  cost  to  Great  Britain 
was  one  billion  dollars  in  money,  an  appalling  sacrifice  of 
young  lives,  and  a  blow  to  her  military  prestige  from  which 
she  has  not  yet  recovered  and  may  never  recover.  Although 
enormously  outnumbered  from  the  beginning  the  Boers 
fought  with  a  courage  and  devotion  that  deservedly  won 
them  the  world's  praise.  No  more  stirring  spectacle  was 
ever  afforded  of  outnumbered  men  battling  for  their  coun- 
try; it  was  worthy  of  the  Greeks  at  their  best,  of  the 
Swiss  when  they  stood  forth  against  Austria,  or  of  the 
Dutch  against  Philip  the  Second.  In  the  end,  when  the 
Boers  were  reduced  to  guerilla  bands  in  the  mountains, 
the  British  confined  the  Boer  women  and  children  in 
reconcentrado  camps  similar  to  those  established  by  Weyler 
in  Cuba.     Then  the  Boer  men  came  in  and  surrendered. 

It  is  rather  odd  to  reflect  that  here  in  America  we  pro- 
tested vehemently  against  reconcentrado  camps  in  Cuba, 
but  seemed  to  think  reconcentrado  camps  in  South  Africa 
were  quite  admirable.  Yet  this  is  not  the  only  point  in 
our  national  conduct  whereon  we  are  judged  harshly  by 
the  surviving  Boers.      If  the   statements  made  to  me  by 

132 


Two  Typical  Wars 

a  former  Boer  leader  have  any  truth,  one  of  the  strongest 
hopes  on  which  the  Boers  based  their  cause  was  of  the 
moral  support  of  the  United  States.  They  argued,  he  said, 
that  the  United  States  was  a  republic,  that  its  sympathies 
would  naturally  be  with  a  sister  republic  oppressed  by  a 
monarchy,  that  the  Americans  had  assisted  the  Cubans  to 
win  their  liberty,  and  had  previously  helped  many  feeble 
nations  struggling  against  heavy  odds.  They  were  amazed 
and  bitterly  hurt  when  they  found  that  instead  of  assist- 
ing them  the  government  of  the  United  States  actively 
helped  Great  Britain.  It  was  of  no  use  to  tell  him  that 
popular  sympathy  in  America  was  with  the  Boers;  all  he 
could  recognize  was  the  undeniable  fact  that  officially  Amer- 
ica helped  Great  Britain.  He  said  that  at  any  moment 
between  the  pressing  of  the  British  demands  and  the  sur- 
render of  Cronje  a  quiet  word  from  the  United  States 
would  have  ended  the  contest  and  kept  the  Boer  republic 
intact.  The  government  of  the  United  States  had  refused 
to  say  that  word  and  the  republic  had  been  sacrificed.  It 
was  not  from  ignorance  that  the  American  government  had 
adopted  this  policy;  there  was  something  else  at  work 
that  the  Boer  envoys  in  America  found  an  impassable  bar- 
rier whenever  they  sought  an  official  hearing,  the  same 
mysterious  and  subtle  power  that  always  defeated  the  re- 
solutions of  sympathy  offered  in  Congress,  and  seemed  to 
drive  the  government  along  a  course  wholly  repugnant  to 
American  traditions  and  the  will  of  the  people. 

This  Boer  leader  dwelt  at  length  upon  the  readiness  of 
America  to  interfere  in  behalf  of  Cuba  and  its  cooperation 
with  Great  Britain  against  the  Boers  as  facts  absolutely 
contradictory.  He  did  not  know  that  in  the  one  case  Capi- 
tal, represented  by  American  investments  in  Cuba  and  the 
interests  of  the  Sugar  Trust,  happened  to  be  on  the  side  of 

133 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

the  Cubans,  and  in  the  other  case,  represented  by  the 
Moneyed  Interests,  it  was  wholly  on  the  side  of  the  British; 
and  that  in  these  instances,  as  in  so  many  others,  govern- 
ment in  the  hands  of  Capital  was  a  puppet. 

When  all  was  over  in  South  Africa  the  Transvaal  and 
the  Orange  Free  State  were  formally  annexed  to  Great 
Britain.  Then  the  mining  companies,  being  made  free  to 
employ  as  much  cheap  labor  as  they  pleased,  imported 
great  numbers  of  Chinese  coolies  and  increased  their  divi- 
dends. 

This  was  the  victory  that  the  people  of  London  were 
celebrating;  it  was  for  the  sake  of  those  dividends  that 
the  young  woman  at  Exeter  was  stricken  down,  for  their 
sake  that  so  many  English  homes  were  darkened,  for  their 
sake  the  enteric  death  lists,  the  graves  on  the  veldt, 
and  the  burdens  of  debt  that  the  English  toilers  must 
pay. 

These  facts,  long  concealed  by  the  controlled  or  inspired 
press,  began  slowly  to  reach  the  popular  intelligence.  The 
armies  of  imported  Chinese  coolies  on  the  Rand  began  to 
be  a  public  scandal.  People  inquired  where  these  obvious 
slaves  were  purchased,  and  why.  Ugly  questions  were 
asked  in  Parliament;  the  news  control  could  not  prevent 
the  situation  from  becoming  apparent.  When  the  masses 
of  people  anywhere  understand  any  cause  they  never  fail 
to  do  justice,  and  yet  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  the 
frankness  and  thoroughness  with  which  the  people  of  Great 
Britain  acknowledged  their  error  and  the  sweeping  manner 
of  its  reparation  did  them  infinitely  more  honor  than  any 
victory  ever  won  by  British  arms.  They  made  this  war 
for  cheap  labor  a  direct  issue,  and  drove  it  home  without 
flinching.  They  hurled  from  power  the  men  that  had  been 
responsible  for  this  chapter  of  shame,  they  insisted  upon 

134 


Two  Typical  Wars 

a  sharp  reversal  of  policy  in  South  Africa,  they  elected 
thirty-one  Socialists  to  Parliament,  and  they  installed  the 
most  radical  government  their  country  has  ever  had,  and 
one  whose  achievements  for  the  poorest  part  of  the  com- 
munity are  likely  to  set  examples  to  the  world. 

But  no  change  of  parties  or  administrations  could  abolish 
the  evil  fruits  of  that  contest.  "  Consequences  are  un- 
pitying."  On  the  additional  public  debt  the  workers  con- 
tinue to  pay  the  interest,  and  will  continue  to  pay  it, 
this  year,  next  year,  all  the  years  of  their  lives.  Their 
children  will  pay  it  after  them,  and  their  children's  chil- 
dren. They  will  pay  it  many  times  over,  and  in  many 
ways,  that  billion  dollars  it  cost  to  augment  the  mine 
owners'  dividends,  cheapen  labor  in  South  Africa,  and 
complete  the  control  by  the  Interests  of  the  world's  gold 
supply.  With  their  labor  and  sweat  the  workingmen  of 
Great  Britain  will  pay  for  a  war  the  object  of  which  was 
to  cheapen  labor.  The  men  that  got  the  enhanced  divi- 
dends and  the  men  that  got  the  control  of  the  gold  supply 
did  not  pay  for  the  war.  The  workingmen  paid  for  all 
of  it.  That  was  what  they  were  cheering  about  that  night 
in  London.  Some  of  the  workingmen  went  to  the  Trans- 
vaal and  took  active  part  in  the  war,  and  were  shot,  or 
died  of  enteric  fever,  in  order  that  labor  might  be  cheapened 
and  dividends  increased.  They  left  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren to  give  up  their  lives  in  that  cause.  And  that  is 
what  their  brethren  were  cheering  about. 

This  is  what  war  is  in  these  times,  and  this  is  why  at 
such  ruinous  cost  we  maintain  armaments  and  build  battle- 
ships. The  workingmen  pay  for  all.  No  workingmen  of 
one  country  ever  want  to  make  war  on  the  workingmen 
of  another  country.  If  let  alone  the  workingmen  of  one 
country  would  be  glad  to  have  the  workingmen  of  another 

135 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

country  live  in  peace  and  be  happy.  It  is  always  the 
capitalists  that  make  war  and  involve  nations  in  quarrels. 
Then  they  drive  or  induce  the  workingmen  to  go  up  to  the 
firing  line  and  kill,  or  be  killed,  until  the  war  is  decided ; 
whereupon  the  cost  of  it  is  presented  for  the  surviving 
workingmen  to  pay. 

In  order  to  prevent  workingmen  from  perceiving  the 
huge  folly  of  this  arrangement,  it  is  customary  to  arouse 
periodical  spasms  of  patriotic  fervor,  to  picture  the  Ger- 
man Emperor  as  about  to  descend  upon  England,  or  the 
Czar  about  to  capture  India,  or  Japan  about  to  hurl  her 
hosts  against  the  United  States.  The  outcome  of  each  of 
these  spasms  is  an  increased  expenditure  for  armament 
and  battleships,  which  the  workingmen  must  pay.  And  all 
the  time  the  fact  is  perfectly  apparent  to  any  observation 
that  the  German  Emperor  will  not  descend  upon  England 
except  with  German  workingmen,  and  the  Czar  will  not 
capture  India  without  Russian  workingmen,  and  the  only 
hosts  that  Japan  can  hurl  against  the  United  States  are 
composed  of  Japanese  workingmen.  And  if  any  of  these 
improbable  events  should  happen,  the  invading  armies  of 
workingmen  would  be  met  by  other  armies  of  workingmen, 
the  blood  that  would  drench  the  earth  would  be  the  blood 
of  workingmen,  the  widows  and  orphans  that  would  be 
made  would  be  chiefly  the  widows  and  orphans  of  working- 
men,  the  limbs  that  would  be  amputated  in  the  field  hos- 
pitals would  be  chiefly  the  limbs  of  workingmen.  So  that 
unless  the  workingmen  can  be  deceived  and  inflamed  against 
one  another,  unless  they  can  be  made  in  some  way  to  think 
that  they  have  some  interest  in  these  international  brawls 
there  will  be  no  war.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  working- 
men  cannot  have  the  slightest  interest  or  concern  in  such 
conflicts,  they  never  gain  aught  from  them  except  heavier 

136 


Two  Typical  Wars 

burdens  and  a  more  wretched  condition;  in  no  conceivable 
respect  is  the  war  any  concern  of  theirs,  but  only  the 
concern  of  the  capitalists,  as  it  was  in  South  Africa,  and 
as  it  is  or  yesterday  it  was  in  Morocco. 

Day  after  day  we  read  of  the  battles  between  the  Spanish 
troops  and  the  Moroccans;  about  the  desperate  valor  of 
the  Spanish,  the  dead  and  wounded  they  count,  or 
about  the  sufferings  of  the  troops  in  the  field.  What  is 
it  all  about?  Why  are  all  these  men  engaged  in  killing 
one  another?  Not  one  hint  of  the  real  cause  is  allowed 
to  be  made  public;  the  news  vouchsafed  to  the  world  is 
that  it  is  a  quarrel  growing  out  of  the  attempt  of  Spain 
to  police  Morocco,  in  accordance  with  the  international 
agreement  of  1905.  The  real  cause,  perfectly  well  known 
behind  the  scenes  in  every  European  capital,  is  that  the 
Interests  of  Spain  have  made  certain  investments  in  Mo- 
rocco; they  seek  those  profits  and  returns  that  under  the 
present  system  of  the  world  we  have  decreed  for  invest- 
ments; the  native  rulers  stand  in  the  way  of  these  profits. 
Hence  the  Interests  compel  the  Spanish  government  to 
make  war  upon  the  native  rulers,  and  thousands  of  Spanish 
workingmen  are  sent  off  to  perish  in  the  desert.  What 
concern  is  it  of  theirs?  Why  should  they  give  up  their 
lives  ? 

Their  brethren  in  Spain  begin  to  ask  this  question ;  their 
widows  ask  it,  when  the  news  comes  that  they  are  dead. 
The  people  resent  the  sacrifices  they  are  making  for  the 
Interests;  they  rise  against  the  government  that  has  thus 
betrayed  them.  Then  the  government  places  guns  in  the 
square  of  Barcelona  and  by  the  thousand  mows  down  the 
workingmen  and  workingwomen.  This  happens  in  1909, 
and  when  the  revolting  people  have  been  killed,  imprisoned, 
or  overawed,  the  governments  of  some  other  countries  are 

137 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

manifestly  relieved,  and  the  war  in  Morocco  is  prosecuted 
with  renewed  vigor. 

All  with  workingmen;  these  things  are  always  done  with 
and  at  the  expense  of  workingmen.  The  capitalists  that 
make  the  wars  never  take  part  in  them,  and  never  pay 
for  them;  the  working  classes  that  are  fooled  into  going 
forth  to  shoot  at  one  another  are  also  fooled  into  paying 
all  the  bills  of  the  shooting.  Some  day,  it  is  to  be  sup- 
posed, the  workingmen  will  weary  of  being  fooled  and 
being  shot  at.  Then  they  will  put  an  end  to  these  pleasant 
games.  The  way  that  they  will  end  them  is  by  ending 
the  system  of  which  the  games  are  an  integral  and  in- 
separable part. 

For  at  all  times,  and  in  all  places,  and  under  all  condi- 
tions, Capitalism  is  War. 


138 


CHAPTER  IX 


A  NOTE  ABOUT  POVERTY 


I  have  enough  to  eat,  enough  to  wear,  enough  of  light 
and  fresh  air,  something  of  recreation,  something  of  leisure. 
All  the  persons  in  my  street,  and  almost  all  the  persons  that 
I  see  about  me  day  after  day,  have  enough  to  eat,  enough 
to  wear,  and  are  comfortably  housed.  I  go  through  a  resi- 
dence street  from  my  place  of  abode  to  the  places  where  I 
transact  business  or  seek  amusement,  and  then  from  the 
places  where  I  seek  amusement  or  transact  business  to 
my  place  of  abode,  and  all  the  persons  I  meet  seem  to 
have  enough  to  eat,  enough  to  wear,  enough  of  light  and 
fresh  air,  and  to  be  physically  comfortable.  Year  in  and 
year  out,  unless  I  go  to  seek  them,  I  shall  see  practically  no 
persons  that  do  not  have  enough  to  eat,  enough  to  wear, 
and  are  not  comfortably  housed;  for  so  is  the  world  ar- 
ranged. If  by  any  rare  chance  one  gaunt  face  or  ill- 
nourished  form  crosses  my  path  I  may  tell  myself  that 
this  person  is  intemperate,  or  improvident,  or  of  ill-life. 
I  may  say  so  with  reasonable  assurance,  because  I  and 
all  others  in  my  walk  of  life  are  repeatedly  assured  by 
persons  of  some  experience  that  this  is  the  case.  I  am 
assured,  for  instance,  that  if  there  are  any  beggars  in  the 
world,  they  are  beggars  by  choice,  and  not  necessity;  if 
any  men  have  not  labor,  it  is  their  own  fault,  since  there 
is  work  enough  for  all ;  that  if  in  odd  and  unvisited  corners 
destitution  may  lurk,  this  is  no  concern  of  mine,  nor  of 

139 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

any  others  like  me,  but  merely  a  condition  the  destitute 
have  brought  upon  themselves.  In  this  fair  land  of  ours 
opportunity  is  equal  for  all;  if  a  man  be  smart  and  alert, 
he  shall  win  a  competence;  if  he  be  not  smart  and  alert, 
his  defects  be  upon  his  own  head;  we  that  are  smart  and 
alert  have  no  responsibility  for  him.  This  is  a  beautiful 
world,  and  most  things  are  now  arranged  as  they  ought 
to  be;  whatever  slight  changes  may  be  needed  will  be 
provided  as  we  go  along  by  the  wise  and  the  good,  to 
whom  we  shall  commit  our  affairs. 

Something  to  this  effect  echoes  about  us  at  all  times, 
as  we  walk  to  and  fro  in  pleasant  places.  And  yet,  the 
truth  is  that  the  world,  as  at  present  constituted,  is  a 
pleasant  or  even  a  tolerable  place  for  only  the  minority 
of  the  persons  that  live  in  it.  Poverty  and  insufficiency 
are  so  common  that  they  may  be  said  to  be  the  rule,  and 
sufficiency  the  exception.  We  are  slow  to  admit  this,  be- 
cause the  poverty  is  crowded  out  of  the  path  of  the  for- 
tunate, who  monopolize  all  the  newspapers  and  most  of 
the  books,  and  other  means  of  knowledge,  with  information 
or  literature  for  and  about  themselves;  so  that  unless  we 
go  forth  to  seek  the  truth  about  the  state  of  the  earth's 
children  we  shall  never  find  it.  We  may  indeed,  and 
probably  shall,  live  out  our  days  in  the  midst  of  the 
truth  and  never  suspect  it.  Not  one  in  one  thousand  of 
fortunate  New  Yorkers  has  the  slightest  conception  of 
the  amount  of  poverty  in  New  York.  The  typical  well- 
fed  New  Yorker  has  no  reason  to  know  it.  He  never 
sees  it.  From  one  year's  end  to  another  he  has  no  occa- 
sion to  go  near  it.  Wherever  he  has  occasion  to  go  are 
well-fed  and  comfortable  people.  He  inevitably  absorbs 
the  impression  that  most  persons  must  be  well-fed  and 
comfortable.     He  hears   from  time  to  time  of  the  great 

140 


A  Note  About  Poverty 

East  Side,  and  of  poor  people  there.  He  never  has  the 
least  occasion  to  mingle  with  such  people.  If  in  all  his 
life  he  has  visited  the  East  Side  it  has  been  as  a  slumming 
excursion  or  a  lark,  and  then  the  people  did  not  seem 
to  him  very  poor,  or  very  miserable.  Of  their  actual  lives 
or  actual  condition  he  has  not  the  vaguest  conception.  In 
point  of  fact,  the  people  of  Egypt  or  of  Greece  are  much 
more  real  to  him,  and  it  never  occurs  to  him  that  the  suffi- 
ciency he  daily  sees  about  him  is  only  a  thin  strand,  beaten 
on  all  sides  by  a  great  sea  of  poverty. 

How  many  of  the  well-fed  and  the  well-to-do  of  London 
have  any  knowledge  of  the  conditions  of  life  as  it  really 
exists  in  their  city?  They  go  to  and  fro  as  the  typical 
New  Yorker  goes,  in  the  comfortable  belief  that  their 
class  and  the  other  well-fed  classes  are  the  majority,  and 
if  there  are  any  poor  persons  they  must  be  few.  What 
is  still  more  remarkable,  the  tourists  and  persons  that  for 
a  time  at  least  make  a  business  of  seeing  what  is  to  be  seen, 
almost  never  see  life  in  the  mass  as  it  really  is.  How  many 
American  tourists  that  think  and  say  they  know  London 
well,  know  anything  about  the  poorer  regions  and  the  vast 
East  End,  in  point  of  population  the  most  important  of 
the  city?  Year  after  year,  Piccadilly  and  Regent  Street, 
the  Strand  and  Pall  Mall,  the  theaters,  the  music  halls, 
the  art  galleries,  and  the  great  shops  are  the  scenery  of 
their  daily  drama,  until  they  know  all  these  quite  well,  and 
London  means  to  them  a  place  of  perfectly  familiar  resort. 
Yet  of  the  real  London,  of  the  swarms  of  unhappy  people 
that  fill  mile  after  mile  of  the  area  of  the  world's  metrop- 
olis, they  know  nothing.  They  have  had  no  occasion  to 
know  it.     Where  their  path  leads  there  is  no  sign  of  it. 

Thus  the  members  of  the  fortunate  class  live,  as  it  were, 
within  a  walled  city,  practically  unaware  of  the  regions 

14.1 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

beyond,  busy  with  news  of  their  own  class,  believing  their 
class  to  be  all  that  is  important  in  the  world.  These  talk 
much,  for  example,  about  general  prosperity,  and  the  gen- 
eral welfare ;  what  they  really  mean  by  these  phrases  is 
the  prosperity  and  welfare  of  those  that  dwell  within  the 
walled  city.  When  what  are  called  "  times "  are  good, 
and  business  is  prosperous,  the  dwellers  in  the  walled  city 
are  the  happier,  and  possess  themselves  of  the  greater 
luxuries.  When  "  times  "  are  not  good,  the  dwellers  in 
the  walled  city  are  the  less  happy,  and  possess  themselves 
of  the  fewer  luxuries.  That  "  times "  may  be  good  foi 
them  is  the  object  of  legislation  and  governmental  anxiety 
all  about  the  world.  Whatever  may  be  the  pretense  about 
the  matter,  the  overwhelming  majority  of  men  are  prac- 
tically unaffected  by  the  dreaded  thing  we  call  "  business 
depression."  True,  in  this  vast  sea  of  insufficiency,  many 
men,  in  a  period  of  such  depression,  will  be  deprived  of 
work,  and  their  misery  and  the  misery  of  their  families 
will  be  increased;  true,  in  such  periods  the  minority  that 
has  sufficiency  will  be  called  upon  to  relieve  the  necessities 
of  a  part  of  the  majority  that  has  insufficiency ;  soup  kitchens 
will  be  established,  and  many  charitable  enterprises  will 
be  inaugurated.  But  all  this  means  only  a  relative  con- 
dition. In  times  of  business  depression  most  of  the  ma- 
jority of  insufficiency  manage  to  live;  not  many  of  them 
starve  to  death;  and  not  much  more  can  be  said  of  them 
in  times  of  business  prosperity.  At  any  time,  and  at  all 
times,  they  do  but  manage  to  live;  in  the  best  of  times 
they  fall  short  of  some  necessities  and  all  the  luxuries  of 
life,  and  in  the  worst  of  times  their  way  of  life  shows 
that  most  of  the  people  are  either  poor  or  very  poor,  and 
the  rich,  and  even  the  well-to-do,  are  a  small  minority. 
Rich  and  poor  are,  of  course,  somewhat  indefinite  terms, 

142 


A  Note  About  Poverty 

and  it  may  be  thought  that  this  indefiniteness  covers  some 
escape  from  the  appalling  significance  of  these  facts.  Let 
us  understand,  then,  that  by  very  poor  we  mean  here,  first, 
all  persons  that  are  in  actual  want,  those  that  must  be 
relieved  by  others,  and  those  that,  when  they  rise  in  the 
morning,  have  no  assurance  of  their  day's  sustenance; 
and,  second,  the  larger  class  whose  sustenance  each  day 
depends  upon  their  day's  employment,  and  who  live,  there- 
fore, divided  from  imminent  hunger  by  the  thin  line  of 
one  day's  earnings.  By  poor  we  mean  those  that,  if  they 
were  deprived  of  their  daily  employment,  could  still  for  a 
short  time  sustain  life.  By  the  well-to-do  we  mean  those 
that  have  accumulated  competences  at  least  sufficient  for 
their  actual  support.  The  rich  are  those  that  have  fortunes 
and  incomes  beyond  their  daily  necessities.  It  appears, 
then,  that  on  this  reasonable  classification  poverty  is  so 
general  in  the  United  States  that  even  in  what  are  called 
"  good  times  "  more  than  one-tenth  of  the  population  is  on 
the  starvation  line,  or  below  it. 

I  have  seldom  mentioned  these  facts  to  any  member 
.of  the  well-to-do  class  without  eliciting  expressions  of  in- 
credulity, and  yet,  that  there  are  in  this  country  at  least 
10,000,000  persons  in  direst  poverty,  is  a  conclusion  forced 
upon  every  person  that  contemplates  the  statistics.  In 
the  year  1900,  a  year  of  great  prosperity  (so-called),  there 
were  more  than  2,000,000  persons  recorded  as  out  of  work, 
a  fact  that  alone  should  be  conclusive  of  the  estimate  here 
given.  Mr.  John  Graham  Brooks  in  his  book,  "  The  Social 
Unrest,"  says  that  of  the  12,500,000  families  in  the  United 
States,  125,000  families  are  rich,  having  each  an  average 
wealth  of  $263,010;  1,3G2,500  families  are  fairly  well  off, 
having  each  an  average  wealth  of  $14,180;  4,762,500  fami- 
lies  are   poor,  having  each   an   average  wealth  of  $1,639, 

143 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

and  6,250,000  families  are  very  poor,  having  no  wealth  at 
all.  No  one  has  ever  succeeded  in  attracting  to  these 
figures  the  least  attention  from  the  well-to-do,  and  yet 
they  are  figures  of  a  stupendous  import,  even  to  the  most 
complacent  and  the  dullest.  If  6,250,000  families  in  the 
United  States,  being  one-half  of  all  the  families,  are  so 
poor  that  they  have  no  wealth,  by  what  possible  right 
do  we  refer  to  this  as  a  prosperous  or  happy  country?  And 
if  these  vast  masses  that  have  no  wealth  are  steadily  in- 
creasing in  numbers  as  the  present  system  continues  its 
unequal  distribution  of  the  products  of  industry,  how  long 
is  it  conceivable  that  we  can  continue  in  security  to  tra- 
verse this  downward  road? 

We  have  still  more  to  consider  on  this  subject.  Sum- 
marizing the  situation  by  percentages,  it  appears  that  so 
appallingly  unequal  is  the  distribution  of  wealth  in  our 
country  that  one  per  cent,  of  the  people  own  55  per  cent, 
of  the  wealth,  ten  per  cent,  of  the  people  own  32  per 
cent,  of  the  wealth,  38  per  cent,  of  the  people  own  13 
per  cent,  of  the  wealth,  and  the  remainder  of  the  people 
own  no  wealth  at  all.  And  Mr.  Charles  B.  Spahr  con- 
templating this  matter  from  a  slightly  different  point  of 
view,  concludes  that  seven-eighths  of  the  families  in  the 
United  States  own  only  one-eighth  of  the  wealth  of  the 
country,  and  one  per  cent,  of  the  families  have  more  wealth 
than  the  remaining  ninety-nine  per  cent.  Years  ago,  on 
the  basis  of  the  census  of  1890,  Mr.  George  K.  Holmes 
estimated  that  three-tenths  of  one  per  cent,  of  the  families 
in  the  United  States  owned  20  per  cent,  of  the  total  wealth 
of  the  country.  If  this  was  the  case  in  1890,  the  dis- 
proportion must  be  much  greater  now,  because  the  process 
of  unequal  distribution  has  been  much  advanced  in  the  last 
twenty  years. 

144 


A  Note  About  Poverty 

According  to  the  census  of  1900,  less  than  one-half  of 
all  the  families  in  the  United  States  own  the  homes  they 
live  in.  In  New  York,  94  per  cent,  of  the  families  rent 
their  homes,  in  Chicago  75  per  cent.,  in  smaller  cities  like 
Fall  River  and  Holyoke,  Mass.,  from  80  to  82  per  cent. 
Mr.  Robert  Hunter,  for  many  years  a  settlement  worker, 
estimates  that  99  per  cent,  of  the  wage  earners  in  the 
larger  cities  are  without  property,  and  that  a  very  large 
majority  are  in  debt. 

Years  ago,  Mr.  Jacob  Riis  pointed  out  the  astounding 
fact  that  one  person  in  ten  that  died  in  New  York  City 
was  buried  in  the  Potter's  Field.  In  eight  years,  as  Mr. 
Riis  showed  from  the  records,  135,595  families  in  New 
York  City  (Manhattan  and  the  Bronx  only)  were  regis- 
tered as  asking  for  or  receiving  charity.  These  families 
represented  a  number  of  persons  equal  to  almost  one-third 
of  the  total  population  of  the  city.  The  Tenement  House 
Commission  of  1900  found  facts  that  corroborated  all  of 
Mr.  Riis's  conclusions.  A  map  of  the  city  was  prepared 
for  this  Commission,  with  dots  showing  the  tenement 
houses  from  which  in  five  years  families  had  applied 
for  charity,  each  dot  representing  five  families  that 
had  so  applied.  The  result  seemed  beyond  belief. 
Many  of  the  tenement  houses  were  black  with  dots,  and 
there  was  hardly  one  in  the  whole  city  that  was  not 
dotted. 

Further  light  on  the  same  situation  is  obtained  from 
the  statistics  about  wages.  It  appears  that  the  average 
wages  of  unskilled  laborers  in  the  United  States  is  less 
than  $400  a  year.  In  some  parts  of  the  country  it  is 
$300,  or  even  less.  The  average  earnings  of  cotton  mill 
operatives  (in  the  South)  is  less  than  $250  a  year;  of  an- 
thracite coal  mine  workers,  less  than  $500  a  year;  of  50 

145 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

per  cent,  of  the  unskilled  labor  in  shoe  factories,  less  than 
$300  a  year. 

Evidently,  then,  nothing  can  be  more  fallacious  than  the 
continual  assumption  from  the  platform  and  in  the  news- 
papers that  this  is  a  country  of  general  prosperity.  In- 
stead of  being  a  country  of  general  prosperity  it  is  evi- 
dently a  country  of  general  poverty,  and  unless  we  can 
assume  that  the  only  purpose  of  organized  society  is  to 
provide  for  the  welfare  of  one-tenth  of  the  population, 
there  can  be  no  escape  from  the  conclusion  that  there  is 
something  radically  wrong  in  this  situation.  Or,  if  there 
be  any  such  escape  I  shall  be  gratified  to  have  it  called  to 
my  attention,  either  by  a  champion  of  the  glorious  spirit 
of  optimism,  or  otherwise. 

If,  then,  in  this  country  that  is  reputed  to  be  more  than 
ordinarily  rich  and  prosperous,  something  like  one-half  of 
the  people  live  from  hand  to  mouth,  and  in  conditions  of 
practical  destitution  (conditions,  that  is,  wherein  their  sup- 
plies of  the  natural  necessities  of  food,  sunlight,  air,  and 
rest  are  precarious  or  inadequate),  what  shall  we  con- 
clude to  be  the  conditions  in  less  favored  countries?  In 
countries,  let  us  say,  where  the  process  of  degrading  the 
masses,  which  always  keeps  pace  (in  the  present  organiza- 
tion of  society)  with  any  country's  settlement  and  develop- 
ment, has  gone  farther  than  it  has  yet  gone  in  the  United 
States?  The  present  fundamental  system  of  society  is  new 
in  North  America;  it  can  be  said  to  haxe  existed  here 
hardly  two  hundred  years.  Yet  the  proportion  of  poor 
to  rich  has  increased  year  after  year.  In  the  beginning  of 
the  system  on  this  continent  there  was  scarcely  any 
perceptible  division  into  rich  and  poor;  now  at  least 
three-fourths  of  the  people  are  to  be  classed  as  poor,  or 
very  poor.     In  other  countries,  where  the  same  system  has 

146 


A  Note  About  Poverty 

existed  longer,  the  proportion  of  the  poor  is  relatively 
even  larger,  and  the  depth  of  the  poverty  is  even  greater; 
and  we  find  that,  as  a  general  rule,  the  longer  the  system 
has  been  in  uninterrupted  working,  the  larger  is  the  body 
of  the  poor  and  the  greater  their  poverty.  To  see  how 
this  is  without  reciting  a  tiresome  list  of  illustrations,  we 
need  but  compare  India,  where  the  system  has  existed 
without  interruption  for  at  least  twenty  centuries,  with  the 
United  States,  where  it  has  existed  only  two.  And  if  we 
desire  to  apprehend  something  of  the  actual  amount  of 
poverty  in  the  world,  we  should  remember  the  poorer 
quarters  of  an  American  city,  and  then  the  similar  quarters 
in  London,  Hamburg,  Naples,  or  other  capitals  in  Europe; 
we  should  think  of  the  toiling  peasants  and  artisans  of 
Europe,  and  then,  turning  to  the  East,  reflect  that  of 
the  people  of  Egypt,  the  300,000,000  of  India,  and  the 
400,000,000  of  China,  the  vast  majority  dwell  in  the  utmost 
destitution  and  physical  discomfort,  and  a  very  large  num- 
ber have  never  known  what  it  is  to  have  even  enough 
to  eat. 

It  will  be  found  exceedingly  difficult  to  reconcile  these 
facts  with  any  conception  of  right  or  natural  justice. 

Yet  all  this  time  it  is  obvious  that  the  earth  yields  enough 
for  the  ample  support  and  comfort  of  all.  Nothing  can 
be  more  certain  than  that  the  fruits  of  the  earth  are  suffi- 
cient for  the  children  of  the  earth.  Here  on  this  earth 
are  for  all  enough  of  light  and  air,  enough  of  room,  enough 
of  labor,  and  enough  of  rest;  the  bountiful  earth  yields 
enough  of  food.  If  anywhere  men  have  less  of  the  fruits 
of  the  earth  than  they  need,  this  can  only  be  because  of 
some  perversion  of  natural  conditions. 

It  appears,  further,  that  in  this  vast  class  that  we  have 
called  the  majority   of   insufficiency   are  included   all   the 

147 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

persons  that  create  wealth,  and  practically  all  the  persons 
that  bear  the  burdens  of  the  community,  and  here  again 
are  highly  abnormal  conditions.  Thus,  the  men  that  with 
the  labor  of  their  hands  create  wealth,  do  not  possess  the 
wealth  that  they  create,  but  this  wealth  is  possessed  by 
others  that  did  not  create  it.  And  all  taxes  levied  for 
the  support  of  the  state  are  eventually  paid  by  these  same 
men  that  labor  with  their  hands,  notwithstanding  that  their 
means  are  invariably  much  smaller  than  the  means  of  more 
fortunate  men,  able  to  shift  from  their  shoulders  the  burden 
of  taxation. 

Therefore,  those  that  have  the  least  of  means  bear  such 
disproportionate  burdens  that,  except  in  very  rare  instances, 
they  have  no  chance  to  be  anything  but  poor;  and  this 
remains  perfectly  true,  both  in  principle  and  practice, 
no  matter  what  vaporings  we  may  choose  to  utter  in  regard 
to  an  equal  chance  for  all. 

Here,  again,  is  a  condition  that  will  seem  infinitely  re- 
pugnant to  the  just  mind. 

The  simple  fact  that  at  present  all  taxes  are  eventually 
paid  by  the  man  that  labors  with  his  hands,  although  one 
of  the  most  obvious  facts  in  existence,  has,  I  believe,  escaped 
the  attention  of  some  persons.  It  will  become  perfectly 
clear  if  we  follow  any  present  form  of  taxation  from  the 
man  that  pays  the  tax  into  the  tax  office  back  to  the  man 
or  men  from  whom  this  taxpayer  gets  the  money  to  pay 
the  tax,  and  so  from  landlord  to  tenant,  from  grocer  to 
purchaser,  from  one  purchaser  to  another,  until  we  come 
at  last  to  the  man  that  toils  with  his  hands  and  creates 
wealth,  beyond  whom  there  is  nobody  to  whom  the  tax 
can  be  passed. 

It  it  customary  to  defend  all  these  rank  injustices  or 
to  huddle  them  out  of  sight  by  saying  that  inequalities  of 

148 


A  Note  About  Poverty 

condition  are  ordained  for  us;  that  they  are  inevitable  and 
incurable,  pertaining  always  to  man's  life  on  the  earth. 
This  is  an  argument  that  never  appealed  much  to  me  after 
I  had  visited  the  places  on  the  earth  where  these  inequalities 
had  been  successfully  minimized. 

But  first,  I  desire  to  go  farther  into  the  fundamental 
basis  of  the  difference  between  one  man's  material  condi- 
tion and  another's. 

I  sat  one  day  in  the  pretty  little  garden  of  the  Kursaal 
at  Lugano.  The  tables  set  in  the  shade  of  the  trees  were 
surrounded  by  well-dressed,  well-fed,  and  happy  peo- 
ple, who  were  drinking  cooling  drinks,  eating  ices,  and 
conversing  joyously.  The  orchestra  was  playing  Rossini's 
Stabat  Mater.  Outside,  the  roadway  was  dusty,  hot,  and 
glaringly  white.  An  Italian  laborer  came  by.  He  put 
down  the  bundle  he  was  carrying,  and  pressed  his  face 
between  the  iron  bars  of  the  fence  while  he  listened.  It 
was  a  very  good  face,  albeit  so  reddened  by  the  sun,  and 
from  the  expression  it  bore  one  could  see  easily  that  the 
man  appreciated  and  understood  the  music  he  was  hearing; 
he  had  manifest  delight  in  the  sound,  he  followed  with  his 
own  thoughts  the  thought  of  the  composer,  which  is  more 
than  could  be  said  of  nine-tenths  of  the  well-dressed  per- 
sons within  the  garden.  Yet  between  his  face  and  their 
faces  was  a  difference  that  went  far  beyond  the  fact  that 
he  was  sunburnt  and  they  were  not.  His  face  was  scored 
and  carved  deep  with  the  marks  of  heavy  toil,  and  their 
faces  were  not;  his  eyes  had  a  certain  look  of  perpetual 
fear,  and  their  eyes  had  not.  The  sun  shone  clear  upon 
him  as  he  stood  there  with  his  wistful  and  infinitely  pathetic 
face  hard  pressed  between  the  bars,  and  every  record  of 
incessant  and  hopeless  toil,  and  of  the  terror  that  haunted 
him  day  and  night,  stood  out  like  legible  words. 

149 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

I  know  nothing  about  the  man's  way  of  life;  I  never 
saw  him  again.  But  suppose,  as  there  is  every  reason 
to  believe,  he  was  engaged  in  useful  work,  in  some  form 
of  activity  that  added  to  the  world's  store  of  the  things 
it  needs,  that  helped  to  produce  food  or  to  provide  shelter 
or  to  transport  products.  Evidently  that  was  more  than 
could  be  said  of  nine-tenths  of  us  that  sat  at  ease  and 
care  free  under  the  trees,  drinking  cooling  drinks,  and 
watching  the  shadows  on  the  mountains. 

Exactly  what  is  the  reason  that  we  should  sit  there  in 
comfort,  and  he,  covered  with  dust  and  maimed  with  toil, 
should  stand  outside  with  his  eager  face  hard  pressed 
against  the  bars? 

Again,  you  may  stand  in  the  Tiergarten  in  Berlin,  and 
here  roll  by  the  handsome  carriages  with  jingling  harness 
and  liveried  footmen.  Very  comfortable  people  lounge  on 
the  cushions.  The  women  have  diamonds  and  costly  dresses ; 
the  men  have  white  soft  hands.  At  one  side  of  the  park 
is  a  long  line  of  costly  palaces,  each  occupied  by  some 
fortunate  man  that  belongs  to  the  minority  of  sufficiency. 
They  are  built  of  stone  brought  at  great  expense  from 
another  region;  they  are  inhabited  by  persons  that  waste 
and  destroy  more  than  they  consume,  that  cannot  possibly 
expend  their  incomes,  that  are  overloaded  and  embarrassed 
with  the  surplus  of  the  earth's  fruits  they  have  seized  for 
themselves.  And  on  the  river  there  is  a  barge  going  slowly 
by.  A  man  takes  a  long  pole  to  the  bow  and  drives  it 
down  to  the  bottom  of  the  river,  and  sets  his  shoulder  to 
the  end.  Then  he  struggles  slowly  toward  the  stern, 
pushing  with  all  his  strength  upon  the  pole.  On  the  deck 
of  the  barge,  inside  the  gunwale,  are  crosswise  cleats  upon 
which  he  clings  with  his  feet  as  he  pushes.  He  crawls 
slowly   along,   bent   far   over,   his   head   below   his   knees. 

150 


A  Note  About  Poverty 

The  weight  of  the  barge  pushes  his  body  out  of  normal 
shape,  he  looks  like  nothing  human  as  he  pants  along,  his 
head  hanging  down,  his  mouth  open,  his  tongue  hanging 
out  like  a  dog's.  So,  inch  by  inch,  he  fights  his  way  to 
the  stern.  There  he  takes  his  pole  from  the  river  and 
moves  forward  to  the  bow  again.  And  you  see  how  his 
toil  has  distorted  his  face  and  twisted  his  body,  and  you 
look  at  him  and  wince.  And  he  takes  his  pole  and  limps 
back  to  the  bow.  The  birds  are  singing  in  the  garden, 
the  trees  are  handsome  in  the  sun,  there  are  vistas  down 
the  avenues,  somewhere  a  band  is  playing.  Evidently  he 
sees  none  of  these  things  and  hears  none.  Birds  and  green 
grass  and  the  blessed  sun  mean  nothing  to  him.  Brutal 
toil  has  obliterated  the  sense  of  them.  The  handsome 
carriages  go  by,  full  of  laughing  people;  a  Prussian  officer, 
brilliantly  dressed,  rides  down  the  bridle  path.  You  stand 
there  and  look  at  these,  and  look  at  the  man,  bent  over 
his  pole,  clinging  and  struggling  from  cleat  to  cleat,  his 
head  below  his  knees,  his  tongue  hanging  out  like  a  dog's. 
You  reflect  that  he  is  still  a  man,  and  you  wince. 

Exactly  what  is  the  reason  that  I  sit  at  ease  in  a 
carriage  in  the  Tiergarten  and  he  wrenches  his  body  on 
a  barge  on  the  Spree?  I  know  that  this  contrast  is  typical 
of  universal  conditions,  that  it  is  the  custom  and  rule  of 
Society;  but  when  all  is  said,  exactly  why  should  it  exist? 

In  a  general  way,  and  speaking  here  of  types  and  not 
specifically,  or  personally,  I  am  told  that  the  reason  for 
this  difference  and  the  reason  why  it  is  right  that  I  should 
have  ease  and  he  should  have  only  toil,  is  some  difference 
between  his  mind  and  mine.  I  am  capable,  he  is  not;  I 
am  smart,  he  is  not;  I  am  efficient,  he  is  inefficient.  There- 
fore, his  inefficiency  is  justly  punished  with  toil  and  misery, 
and  my  efficiency  is  justly  rewarded  with  ease  and  comfort. 

151 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

This  is  a  theory  immensely  pleasing  to  my  vanity.  I 
like  to  hear  people  say  it.  I  like,  so  far  as  I  can,  to  delude 
myself  into  thinking  that  there  really  is  some  superior 
quality  in  the  poor  little  modicum  of  mind  that  I  possess. 
It  pleases  me  to  have  people  say  that  I  have  won  by  merit 
what  success  I  have  been  able  to  achieve.  And  yet,  I 
know  perfectly  well,  and  in  moments  of  fair  introspection 
I  cannot  conceal  from  myself  the  fact,  that  the  successes 
I  have  won,  so  far  as  I  have  won  any,  have,  without 
exception,  resulted  from  circumstance  and  not  from  any 
effort  or  merit  or  quality  of  my  own,  and  that  in 
every  critical  moment  of  my  life  the  event  has  been  de- 
cided by  environment,  by  conditions,  and  by  facts  entirely 
beyond  my  control.  I  come  to  this  conclusion  very  re- 
luctantly— the  other  is  so  much  more  the  gratifying  and 
delightful  supposition — but  I  am  irresistibly  driven  in  upon 
it,  not  only  by  reflections  concerning  my  own  career,  but 
by  intimate  recollections  of  what  I  have  observed  of  other 
men;  for  example,  of  the  men  the  world  calls  great.  It 
has  been  my  fortune  to  be  able  to  observe  closely  and 
under  widely  different  conditions  many  such  men,  and  I 
am  obliged  to  say  that  in  all  circumstances  of  action  and 
inaction,  they  have  been  different  in  no  way  from  the 
men  that  the  world  esteems  not  great.  No  observer  could 
detect  any  difference  between  the  operations  of  their 
minds  and  the  operations  of  the  minds  of  inferior  men. 
The  great  men  have  been  as  much  puzzled  in  emergencies, 
and  (to  one  behind  the  scenes)  as  much  the  prey  and 
sport  of  circumstance  as  the  rest  of  us,  and,  it  having 
been  my  privilege  to  observe  some  great  actions  in  the 
doing,  I  am  further  obliged  to  say  that  none  of  these 
seemed  to  be  anything  but  the  product  of  blind  and 
irresistible  chance.     Of  the  able  men  that  I  have  known 

152 


A  Note  About  Poverty 

the  successful  ventures  have  been  clearly  fortuitous,  and 
I  have  yet  to  observe  one  instance  of  man  commanding 
circumstance. 

If,  then,  it  is  not  really  a  difference  in  merit  that  ac- 
counts for  the  difference  between  the  man  pushing  the 
boat  and  the  man  at  ease  in  the  carriage,  by  what  possible 
right  does  the  man  in  the  carriage  sit  still  and  accept 
of  his  good  fortune  in  the  face  of  the  other  man's 
misery  ? 

Furthermore,  if  this  difference  really  exists  between  the 
essential  mental  qualifications  of  those  that  we  call  the 
able  and  those  that  we  call  the  unable,  it  can  exist  only 
in  one  of  two  ways.  Either  the  brains  of  the  able  must 
be  different  in  texture,  substance,  or  size  from  the  brains 
of  the  unable  (a  fact  for  which  it  will  be  admitted  the 
able  cannot  possibly  claim  credit,  since  it  is  beyond  their 
control),  or  the  difference  in  the  mentalities  must  result 
from  a  difference  of  training,  educational  opportunity,  ad- 
vantage of  schooling  and  preparation. 

But  so  far  scientific  research  carried  on  by  many  zealous 
and  careful  investigators  has  failed  utterly  to  detect  any 
such  differences  in  texture,  structure,  or  size  between  the 
brains  of  the  able  and  the  brains  of  the  unable,  as  would 
afford  a  basis  for  the  first  conclusion.  The  brains  of 
men  held  to  be  the  ablest  have  sometimes  been  found  on 
post-mortem  examination  to  be  smaller  in  size  than  the 
brains  of  some  illiterates,  or  the  brains  of  those  notoriously 
unable;  nor  has  anything  been  detected  in  regard  even 
to  cellular  arrangement  that  would  afford  a  basis  for  a 
belief  that  what  are  called  the  able  are  from  the  beginning 
gifted  with  different  brains  from  those  that  are  called 
the  unable. 

Therefore,  this   part   of   the   theory   seems   wholly   un- 

153 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

tenable.  But  if,  then,  the  difference  between  the  successful 
and  the  inefficient,  between  the  man  in  the  boat  and  me, 
is  only  a  matter  of  training,  education,  preparation,  op- 
portunity, how  does  that  justify  me  in  accepting  the 
situation?  If  the  man  in  the  boat  had  been  as  well  trained 
as  I  have  been  he  would  be  in  the  same  situation  of  com- 
parative ease  and  comfort — or  better.  That  he  is  not 
in  such  a  condition,  that  his  life  consists  only  of  frightful 
toil  and  destitution,  that  his  horizon  is  narrow,  that  the 
birds,  the  sunlight,  grass,  trees,  flowers,  the  joys  of  the 
earth  mean  nothing  to  him,  that  his  existence  is  only  day 
upon  day  of  darkness  and  misery,  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
he  has  been  deprived  of  privileges  that  I  possessed.  But 
he  is  exactly  as  much  the  child  of  the  earth  as  I  am.  He 
is  in  all  respects  man  as  I  am.  His  blood  is  of  the  same 
color,  his  body  is  made  of  the  same  elements,  he  is  sus- 
ceptible to  the  same  emotions  of  joy  and  sorrow,  he  was 
born  into  the  world  with  the  same  capacity  for  pleasure 
and  pain,  he  will  go  the  same  way  back  to  earth  again. 
Unless  I  am  to  wallow  in  a  mire  of  selfishness;  unless 
by  incessant  suggestion  I  am  to  indurate  my  mind  to  every 
claim  of  kindness,  sympathy,  and  justice,  by  which  process 
it  will  become  equally  proof  against  all  pleasures  that  are 
not  solely  bestial;  I  must  be  driven  irresistibly  to  protest 
against  the  conditions  that  without  a  shadow  of  justice 
have  deprived  this,  my  brother,  of  the  training  and  oppor- 
tunities that  have  won  me  the  degree  of  comfort  I  enjoy. 

It  is  true  that  if  I  wish  I  may  close  my  eyes  to  the 
certain  justice  of  these  reflections,  as  I  may  close  them  to 
my  brother  struggling  in  the  boat,  or  to  my  brethren  that 
in  every  corner  of  the  world  toil  and  suffer  equally  with 
him.  But  this  is  a  choice  that  in  every  instance  will  bring 
its  penalty.      By  exactly  so  much  as   I   am  indifferent  to 

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A  Note  About  Poverty 

these  my  brethren,  by  so  much  I  have  robbed  and  darkened 
my  own  life. 

Yet  even  this  is  not  all  the  significance  pertaining  to 
the  fact  that  the  majority  of  mankind  are  essentially  in 
the  condition  of  the  man  pushing  the  boat.  Besides  the 
individual  penalty  always  exacted  of  the  man  that  shuts 
his  eyes  and  hardens  his  heart  to  the  condition  of  his 
brother,  there  is  a  fearful  penalty  exacted  of  the  nation 
that  tolerates  poverty.  While  this  government  by  and  for 
the  prosperous  goes  its  way  everywhere  in  the  world,  in- 
tent upon  maintaining  and  securing  the  welfare  of  the 
fortunate,  poverty,  too,  goes  on,  undermining  (unobserved, 
but  incessantly),  the  physical  stamina  of  the  nation.  For, 
contrary  to  what  seems  to  be  the  universal  view  of  govern- 
ment, the  strength  of  a  nation  does  not  lie  in  its  fortunate 
inhabitants,  but  always  and  solely  in  those  that  toil  with 
their  hands.  As  the  toilers  bear  all  the  burden  of  taxation, 
so  also  from  the  toilers  is  recruited  the  national  army, 
and  from  the  toilers  come,  as  a  rule,  the  inventions,  the 
ideas,  and  the  motives  toward  progress  that  have  made  for 
national  success.  If  now  this  great  mass  of  toiling  men 
in  any  nation  is  ill-housed,  ill-fed,  dwelling  without  suffi- 
cient light  and  air,  without  sufficient  rest  and  recreation, 
if  it  inhabits  overcrowded  regions,  if  it  lives  in  badly 
ventilated  houses,  dark  and  damp,  if  it  is  overwhelmed 
and  dragged  down  by  the  necessity  that  compels  debasing 
and  imbruting  toil,  the  strength  and  stamina  of  the  nation 
that  tolerates  these  conditions  are  eaten  out.  No  matter 
how  fair  the  outside  of  such  a  nation  may  be,  at  the  touch 
of  an  emergency  the  structure  collapses  like  rotten  wood. 

Great  Britain  offers  to  the  world  a  powerful  example  of 
these  truths.  Formerly  an  agricultural  country,  when  the 
sturdiness  of  its  yeomanry  was  proverbial,  Great  Britain 

155 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

became,  with  the  development  of  machinery,  and  especially 
since  the  corn  laws  were  abolished,  a  great  manufacturing 
country.  Manufacturing  drew  the  people  into  the  cities, 
where,  partly  because  of  the  antique  land  laws  and  partly 
because  of  the  national  neglect,  they  were  terribly  over- 
crowded and  masses  of  them  lived  in  insufficiency  of  the 
primal  necessities.  Philanthropists  and  investigators  re- 
peatedly sought  to  draw  attention  to  the  certain  results  of 
such  overcrowding  and  general  poverty  as  existed  in  the 
frightful  regions  of  London  called  Stepney  and  White- 
chapel,  and  in  similar  regions  in  Manchester,  Liverpool, 
Birmingham,  and  other  great  cities.  No  heed  was  paid  to 
these  warnings;  year  after  year  the  populations  in  the 
slums  were  allowed  to  pile  up,  while  the  average  standard 
of  living  declined.  After  two  generations  of  such  condi- 
tions the  Boer  War  burst  upon  the  country.  Recruits  were 
necessary  for  the  army,  and  when  these  were  sought  in 
the  great  cities  the  amazing  discovery  was  made  that  there 
was  practically  no  material  for  army  making.  Although 
the  physical  standards  were  lowered,  the  numbers  of  young 
men  that  could  pass  the  examination  were  very  small.  In 
Manchester,  of  11,000  men  that  offered  themselves  for 
enlistment,  nearly  10,000  were  necessarily  rejected  for 
physical  defects,  and  the  percentage  of  rejections,  as  re- 
cruiting work  progressed,  became  so  great  that  for  reasons 
of  national  security  it  was  thought  well  not  to  make  public 
the  actual  figures. 

But  enough  was  known  to  set  on  foot  public  and  private 
investigation  of  the  state  of  the  poor  in  British  cities,  and 
to  cause  general  alarm  for  the  future.  Much  that  was  dis- 
covered was  calculated  to  startle  complacency.  Thus,  for 
instance,  it  was  learned  that  there  was  a  steady  and  ter- 
rifying increase  of  congenital  insanity  and  imbecility  re- 

156 


A  Note  About  Poverty 

ported  among  the  children  in  the  vast  city  slums;  that  on 
medical  examination  in  the  schools  of  the  region  about 
80  per  cent,  of  the  children  were  found  to  be  physically 
defective;  that  for  children  in  the  schools  to  faint  for 
lack  of  food  was  so  common  that  the  teachers  were  quite 
accustomed  to  the  sight;  that  little  children,  and  often 
adults,  were  to  be  seen  picking  and  devouring  garbage  and 
fruit  rinds  from  the  gutters;  that  many  thousands  of 
persons  were  without  even  a  cellar  or  an  attic  to  shelter 
them  and  nightly  slept  in  archways,  doorways,  and  the 
streets;  that  the  annual  number  of  suicides  in  the  East  End 
reached  to  very  distressing  figures;  that  constitutional 
diseases,  rickets,  tuberculosis,  influenza,  and  spinal  com- 
plaints were  very  common,  and  the  prevalence  of  tuber- 
culosis, in  particular,  amounted  to  a  grave  menace  to  public 
health  elsewhere;  that  in  average  stature  and  average  in- 
telligence, as  in  average  health,  the  people  of  the  slums 
showed  a  reversionary  progress ;  that  the  typical  slum 
dweller  was  incapable  mentally  and  defective  physically; 
that  both  the  extent  of  the  area  thus  affected  and  its  popu- 
lation were  much  larger  than  had  been  suspected,  even  by 
those  that  had  given  heed  to  the  subject;  that  in  the  city  of 
London  alone,  1,800,000  people  live  on  the  line  of  extreme 
poverty  or  below  it,  and  still  another  million  have  between 
them  and  deadly  want  nothing  but  the  scanty  wages  of  a 
week,  while  there  are  something  like  125,000  registered 
paupers  and  one  person  in  every  four  is  buried  at  public  ex- 
pense. What  kind  of  an  Inferno  is  this  to  thrust  into  our 
faces  as  the  ripe  fruit  of  modern  civilization?  In  the  East 
End  of  London  55  per  cent,  of  the  children  die  before  they 
are  five  years  old ;  fifty  of  every  hundred  die  in  their  first 
year,  and  the  coroners  down  there  hold  something  like  600 
inquests  a  year  on  infants  that  have  been  smothered  by 

157 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

their  mothers.  Is  there  any  horror  recorded  of  war  that 
compares  with  this?  Of  the  population  of  London  1,800,- 
000  belong  to  families  that  have  a  total  income  of  less 
than  $5.25  a  week.  There  are  300,000  people  in  the  fami- 
lies that  live  in  one  room  each — one  room  to  each  family, 
and  in  that  room  seven,  eight,  nine,  perhaps  a  dozen  per- 
sons, sleeping  on  the  floor,  cooking,  and  eating,  and  calling 
the  place  "  home." 

With  this  appalling  region  I  early  became  (almost  against 
my  will)  fairly  familiar.  The  first  time  I  went  to  London, 
about  sixteen  years  ago,  I  was  on  a  newspaper's  errand, 
and  nothing  was  farther  from  my  thought  than  that  I 
should  take  the  trouble  to  go  into  the  East  End.  I  knew 
in  a  vague  general  way  that  there  was  a  great  deal  of 
poverty  in  London;  my  father  had  often  told  me  of  his 
observations  there,  but  I  am  sorry  and  ashamed  to  say 
that  I  hardly  listened  to  him.  I  had  the  point  of  view 
perfectly  characteristic  of  the  well-fed  American:  I  could 
not  see  how  poverty  in  London  concerned  me.  If  there 
were  any  poor,  they  were  probably  poor  because  they  got 
drunk  or  otherwise  misbehaved,  and  if  they  would  keep 
sober  and  be  good  they  would  not  be  poor.  Anyway,  why 
bother?  And  then  I  went  to  London,  and  circumstances 
led  me  down  to  the  East  End,  where  I  stood  and  peered 
over  the  edge  of  perdition,  and  into  my  dull  head  was 
slowly  pounded  the  fact  that  poverty  in  London  and  pov- 
erty everywhere  directly  concern  every  man  upon  the 
earth. 

It  was  this  way:  on  the  first  morning  I  went,  in  pursuit 
of  my  newspaper  errand,  to  Leicester  Square,  and  was 
amazed  to  find  there  the  benches  filled  and  the  railings 
lined  with  swarms  of  the  most  forlorn,  hopeless,  gaunt, 
and    wretched   human   beings    I    had    ever    seen;    men   so 

158 


A  Note  About  Poverty 

wretched,  in  fact,  that,  in  some  way  that  I  cannot  well 
describe,  they  struck  me  as  inhuman  and  weird.  They 
were  merely  so  many  specimens  from  the  submerged  tenth, 
the  lowest  stratum  of  organized  society,  and  afterwards 
they  became  so  common  a  sight  that  I  wholly  ceased  to 
be  shocked;  but  on  that  morning  it  was  all  new  and  hor- 
rible. I  had  known  tramps  and  vagabonds  of  all  kinds, 
but  there  was  something  very  different  here,  and  after 
a  time  I  perceived  wherein  lay  the  difference.  These  faces 
were  the  faces  of  men  that  in  all  their  lives  had  never 
once  known  hope.     That  was  the  difference. 

While  I  stood  there  I  saw  one  of  the  breed,  a  young 
man,  with  a  face  of  deadly  pallor  and  half-closed  eyes, 
fall  in  the  street  from  weakness,  and  when  he  staggered 
to  his  feet  I  saw  a  great  hulking  policeman  knock  him 
down  twice  (for  being  in  the  way,  I  suppose),  and  finally 
push  him,  tottering,  out  of  sight  around  the  corner.  I 
learned  to  my  further  amazement  that  this  young  man 
was  not  drunk  nor  sick,  but  only  starving.  Just  as  I 
learned  that  a  woman  somewhere  behind  me  laughed. 
There  was  something  so  discordant  and  incongruous  in 
laughter  just  then  that  I  turned  sharply  around.  The 
square  lay  before  me,  filled  with  carriages,  the  gaudy 
music  halls  on  one  side,  bright  showy  store  windows  on 
the  other.  Happy  men  and  women  went  lightly  along 
the  sidewalks,  and  there  were  handsome  equipages  about. 
In  front  of  one  of  the  stores  was  a  black  chariot,  with 
beautiful  horses  in  shining  silver  harness,  a  footman 
and  a  driver  in  handsome  livery.  Behind  it  was  the 
woman  that  had  laughed.  She  was  sitting  in  a  carriage 
with  a  man.  Both  were  very  handsomely  dressed; 
the  woman  I  remember  had  some  kind  of  silk  or  satin 
parasol  with  much  lace  upon  it,  and  my  companion  told 

159 


Why  1  Am  a  Socialist 

me  that  the  lace  was  of  some  rare  and  costly  kind  that 
I  have  forgotten.  She  had  diamonds  at  her  throat,  and 
she  looked  very  happy.  She  was  not  laughing  at  the 
starving  men,  though  she  might  as  well  have  been;  she 
was  laughing  at  something  the  man  had  said.  But  some- 
how in  the  midst  of  that  scene,  with  two  or  three  hundred 
human  wrecks  drawing  agonized  breaths  about  her,  and 
this  one  man  starving  almost  before  her  eyes,  the  sound 
of  her  laughter  made  unspeakable  discord,  and  her  smiling 
face  was  the  most  incongruous  thing  I  had  ever  seen. 

I  had  never  before  had  the  fact  of  starvation  thrust  thus 
upon  me;  it  was,  of  course,  inevitable  that,  coming  thus  to 
the  notice  of  an  old  reporter,  I  should  make  inquiries  about 
so  strange  a  matter.  The  inquiries  led  me  to  the  region 
whence  that  young  man  had  emerged,  and  where  in  misery 
as  black  as  his,  under  the  shadow  of  a  fate  the  most  awful 
that  can  be  conceived  for  men  and  women,  dwelt  a  million 
brothers  and  sisters  of  mine.  I  stood  on  the  edge  of  that 
pit  and  looked  down,  and  once  there,  naturally  I  could 
not  well  leave  a  phase  of  life  so  strange,  so  grotesque,  and 
forming  such  an  instructive  commentary  upon  us  and  all 
our  ways  until  I  had  learned  more  about  it. 

Of  the  truly  appalling  facts  that  came  within  my  knowl- 
edge I  need  here  give  but  one  example.  It  is  a  case  that 
was  under  my  own  observation.  A  family  of  nine  persons 
dwelt  in  a  cellar  in  Stepney;  a  cellar  of  one  room,  about 
fourteen  feet  square.  All  the  light  and  all  the  air  that 
came  into  that  cellar  entered  through  a.  grating  in  the 
sidewalk.  By  day  a  carpenter  used  the  cellar  for  a  work- 
shop; to  get  light  enough  to  do  his  work  he  had  his  bench 
directly  under  the  grating.  The  place  was  dark  and  foully 
dank;  the  only  furniture  (if  by  the  straining  of  speech 
these     things     could     be     called     furniture)     consisted     of 

160 


A  Note  About  Poverty 

a  collection  of  filthy  rags  for  a  bed  and  an  iron  pot 
in  which  the  wretched  denizens  cooked  food,  if  by  chance 
they  could  come  upon  any.  Water  dripped  from  the  walls, 
the  odor  of  the  place  was  almost  insupportable;  and  yet 
nine  persons  had  it  for  their  abode.  The  children  slept 
on  the  carpenter's  shavings ;  the  parents  on  the  pile  of 
rags.  And  above  this  pit  of  misery  was,  if  you  will  believe 
me,  a  school.  It  was  not  a  rare  instance  as  you  might 
think;  there  are  other  places  as  bad.  This  one  came  to 
light  because  the  mother  had  smothered  one  of  the  babies 
and  was  dragged  into  court,  and  the  police  described  what 
they  had  found.  No  doubt  it  was  terrible  for  the  mother 
to  smother  the  baby,  but  looking  upon  the  wan  faces, 
shrunken  forms,  listless  eyes,  and  bestial  expressions 
of  those  that  survived  one  would  be  hard  put  to 
say  that  the  dead  baby  was  not  the  better  off — in  this 
city  of  London,  capital  of  civilization,  A.  D.  1894. 
Amen! 

And  yet,  if  you  say  to  me  that  these  people  are  so  made 
that  they  are  incapable  of  anything  else,  that  they  are 
naturally  incapable  and  inept,  that  they  are  not  the  prod- 
ucts of  this  system  of  yours  but  persons  afflicted  by 
the  will  of  God  with  inferior  brains  and  weaker  spirits, 
I  ask  you  to  explain  the  record  of  the  Dr.  Barnardo  enter- 
prise. Here  is  an  organization  that  takes  these  children 
from  the  sub-cellars  and  the  loathsome  attics  and  carries 
them  beyond  the  seas  to  new  countries,  where  they  have 
fresh  air  and  sunlight,  and  enough  to  eat,  and  95  per  cent, 
of  them  become  good,  healthful,  intelligent  men  and  women. 
Where,  then,  rests  the  blame  for  this  hell,  so  far  beyond 
all  the  hells  ever  conceived  by  theology?  Day  after  day 
these  millions  go  slipping  down  the  precipice,  children  are 
murdered,  lives  are  led  without  sufficiency  or  comfort,  with- 

161 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

out  one  glimpse  of  joy  or  hope.  And  at  the  other  end  of 
London  men  and  women  live  in  idle  splendor  and  luxury, 
and  with  all  their  waste  and  profusion  cannot  spend  their 
incomes.  If  there  be  any  justification  for  this  situation  I 
should  be  gratified  to  learn  of  it. 

Yet  London  is  but  the  epitome  of  England,  and  England 
of  the  world.  What  you  see  in  Stepney  and  Whitechapel 
you  may  see  in  Bristol,  Manchester,  Leeds,  and  even  in 
the  ancient  and  quiet  city  of  York.  Mr.  London  *  tells 
us  that  of  every  1,000  persons  in  Great  Britain  939  die 
in  poverty;  there  8,000,000  "  simply  struggle  on  the  ragged 
edge  of  starvation,  and  20,000,000  more  are  not  com- 
fortable in  the  simple  and  clean  sense  of  the  word."  In 
the  course  of  years  of  observation  of  conditions  in  London 
and  elsewhere  in  Great  Britain,  I  have  found  everything 
to  confirm  and  nothing  to  refute  Mr.  London's  con- 
clusions. Total  population  of  the  country,  42,000,000,  and 
this  is  the  state  of  28,000,000  of  those  42,000,000  in  the 
country  that  is  empress  of  the  world  and  leader  of  civiliza- 
tion. Then  I  hold  with  Wendell  Phillips  that  this  kind 
of  civilization  did  not  come  from  above,  but  from  below, 
and  the  sooner  it  goes  down  the  better.  And  if  I  seem 
to  write  about  this  with  bitterness  I  can  only  say  that 
earnestly  I  hope  I  do.  A  man  that  could  spend  some  days 
in  the  East  End  of  London  and  write  of  it  without  bitter- 
ness has  powers  of  self-control  I  can  never  hope  to  emu- 
late. And  if  you  think  I  am  in  any  way  extreme  or 
extravagant  about  it,  I  summon  as  witness  a  scientist  noted 
for  his  cool  and  judicial  temperament,  the  late  Professor 
Huxley,  who  was  himself  once  a  medical  officer  in  the 
East  End,  and  he  says,  "  were  the  alternative  presented 

*  In  "  The  People  of  the  Abyss." 
162 


A  Note  About  Poverty 

to  me,  I  would  deliberately  prefer  the  life  of  the  savage 
to  that  of  those  people  of  Christian  London." 

To  combat  this  national  enemy  within,  far  more  menac- 
ing than  any  foreign  foe,  many  reforms  were  advocated. 
The  London  County  Council,  one  of  the  ablest  legislative 
bodies  in  the  world,  undertook  vast  benevolent  enterprises 
in  the  building  of  cheap  and  sanitary  dwellings.  Whole 
estates  (like  those  at  Norbury  and  Tooting)  were  pur- 
chased at  public  expense  and  covered  with  attractive  homes. 
Many  so-called  "garden  cities"  were  projected,  and  some 
were  built.  Every  British  city  began  to  demolish  slums 
and  to  supply  model  tenements.  Miles  upon  miles  of  rotten 
rookeries  in  Westminster,  Stepney,  Shoreditch,  Manchester, 
Liverpool,  Glasgow,  and  York  were  obliterated.  Money 
from  the  public  funds  was  voted  everywhere  for  these 
laudable  purposes.  Private  means  were  also  devoted  to 
some  housing  experiments,  and  individual  philanthropists 
gave  help  to  a  warfare  upon  such  results  of  poverty  as 
tuberculosis.  The  London  County  Council  began  to  feed 
poor  school  children,  and  to  build  cheap  lodging  houses  for 
the  shelterless.  Some  attempts  were  also  made  (I  am 
afraid  in  a  spasmodic  and  half-hearted  manner)  to  deal 
with  the  question  of  the  unemployed. 

Altogether,  therefore,  we  may  believe  that  as  poverty 
had  reached  its  most  menacing  and  fearful  aspects  in 
London,  so  there,  also,  were  made  to  cope  with  it  the 
most  determined  and  the  ablest  efforts  that  under  our 
present  system  of  society  are  possible.  I  desire  to  cite 
the  net  results  as  the  most  instructive  lesson  of  these  times. 
On  the  mass  of  poverty  there  has  been  made  not  one 
visible  impression.  After  so  much  and  such  conscientious 
effort  the  suffering  among  the  poor  of  Great  Britain  in 
the  winter  of  1907-8  was  the  most  severe  that  had  been 

163 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

known  in  a  generation.  There  is  no  lessening  of  the 
vast  hordes  of  hungry,  ill-nourished,  and  idle  persons  that 
fill  the  East  End  streets,  there  is  no  statistical  result  that 
gives  encouragement,  there  is  no  lessening  of  the  area 
nor  of  the  amount  of  human  misery.  Indeed,  there  is  every 
reason  to  believe  that  the  sum  total  of  poverty  grows  at 
least  as  fast  as  it  grew  before  all  these  noble  projects 
of  improvement  were  conceived.  In  my  own  annual  visits 
to  the  East  End  this  has  been  my  impression,  and  I  am 
supported  therein  by  the  judgment  of  persons  whose  means 
of  observation  and  knowledge  are  far  beyond  mine. 

It  is  true  there  have  been  many  new  houses  built,  and 
some  old  houses  destroyed;  but  these  changes  have  been 
of  no  avail.  The  new  houses  have  been  occupied  by  the 
fairly  well-to-do;  the  poor  remain  housed  as  they  were. 
The  futility  of  all  such  methods  of  attack  is  exempli- 
fied in  these  vast  housing  enterprises.  The  bright,  new 
airy  dwellings  erected  by  the  County  Council  are  so  ad- 
mirable and  are  offered  at  such  low  rentals  that  they 
are  at  once  possessed  by  the  fairly  well-to-do.  For  less 
than  the  current  rents  they  can  here  secure  better  than 
the  average  dwellings.  This,  I  think,  tells  the  story  prac- 
tically everywhere,  and  so  long  as  our  affairs  are  con- 
stituted upon  the  present  basis  this  must  be  the  result 
of  all  such  philanthropy  and  to  give  less  and  obtain  more  is 
so  exactly  in  accordance  with  the  basic  principles  of  our 
society  that  we  can  find  no  manner  of  fault  when  our 
model  housing  schemes  achieve  such  results.  Those  that 
were  well  housed  before  are  better  housed  now,  and  at 
cheaper  rents ;  those  that  were  ill-housed  before  are  ill- 
housed  now;  for  every  slum  destroyed,  a  new  slum  takes 
its  place;  and  while  the  remark  seems  ungracious  and 
almost  inhumane,  there  is   some   reason  to   think  that  the 

164 


A  Note  About  Poverty 

well-meant  efforts  of  the  London  County  Council  and  other 
municipal  bodies  have  been  rather  worse  than  fruitless, 
and  a  brighter  prospect  of  good  would  now  appear  if  the 
whole  condition  had  been  allowed  to  slide  from  bad  to 
worse  without  an  effort  to  provide  one  distracting  palliative, 
until  it  should  reach  a  state  where  the  nation  was  willing 
to  abolish  the  cause  of  the  disease  instead  of  dosing  the 
symptoms. 

Great  Britain  is  the  present  world  empire;  she  sits  upon 
the  world's  throne;  she  is  the  reputed  leader  in  the  world's 
affairs,  occupying  the  place  once  held  by  Greece,  Rome, 
the  Franks,  Spain,  and  France.  Yet  while  she  has  been 
spreading  her  flag  and  power  in  so  many  quarters  of  the 
world,  and  enforcing  her  rule  on  so  many  unwilling  peoples, 
there  has  been  at  work  within  her  this  deadly  cancer  of 
poverty  that  unnoticed  has  sapped  her  strength  and  left 
her  nothing  but  the  shell  and  show  of  power.  So  it  will 
always  sap  the  strength  of  any  nation  that  tolerates  it, 
and  if  we  are  to  take  only  the  lowest  and  meanest  view, 
the  view  of  selfishness  and  narrow  patriotism,  nothing  is 
so  clear  as  that  these  conditions  do  not  pay.  Aside  from 
the  moral  crime  of  allowing  these  great  populations  to 
be  swept  down  an  abyss  of  misery  without  one  adequate 
effort  on  our  part  to  rescue  them,  there  is  the  practical 
result  of  national  decline  always  to  be  dealt  with.  No 
nation  on  this  earth  ever  was  or  can  be  so  rich  that  it 
can  afford  to  tolerate  poverty  or  to  allow  any  number 
of  its  people  to  dwell  in  conditions  that  deny  them  physical 
and  mental  health,  and  an  opportunity  for  development. 

Have  we  no  lessons  of  this  kind  to  learn  in  the  United 
States,  and  is  there  nothing  terrifying  in  the  yearly  in- 
crease of  poverty,  the  lengthening  bread  lines,  and  those 
growing  regions  in  our  large  cities  that  are  grossly  over- 

165 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

populated?  The  East  Side  of  New  York  is  only  in  degree 
less  terrible  than  the  East  End  of  London;  the  essential 
character  of  its  conditions  is  the  same,  and  I  can  con- 
ceive of  nothing  better  calculated  to  cause  disquieting  re- 
flections to  any  mind  in  the  least  hopeful  for  the  future 
of  America  and  of  the  American  race  than  the  truly  alarm- 
ing spread  year  by  year  of  the  East  Side,  and  the  still  more 
alarming  increase  of  population  in  blocks  long  ago  notorious 
for  overcrowding.  In  1902  the  Tenement  House  Com- 
mission, after  patient  investigation  of  these  conditions, 
issued  a  warning  to  the  prosperous,  and  supported  that 
warning  with  tables  showing  the  populations  by  blocks  in 
the  then  perilously  overcrowded  regions.  I  wish  that  in 
some  way  it  were  possible  for  me  to  give  emphasis  to  the 
fact  that  what  was  then  regarded  as  dangerous  overcrowd- 
ing is  much  more  crowded  now.  The  population  of  almost 
every  block  specified  by  the  Tenement  House  Commission  in 
1902  is  greater  now  than  then.  In  some  blocks  the  in- 
creased population  amounts  to  25  per  cent.  I  have  here  a 
table  showing  the  population  of  typical  blocks  as  reported 
by  the  Tenement  House  Commission,  and  the  population  of 
the  same  blocks  now.  I  submit  that  there  is  nothing  in 
the  statistics  concerning  the  slums  of  London,  nor  of  any 
other  city,  better  calculated  to  cause  alarm:* 

Block    bounded    by                                           Ward  1902             April, 1909 

Madison,  Jackson,  Monroe,  Scammel..     7  3,085  4,662 

Monroe,  Jackson,  Cherry,  Scammel...     7  3,149  2,680 

E.  11th,  Ave.  C,  E.  10th,  Ave.  B 11  3,116  2,541 

E.  6th,  Ave.  D,  E.  5th,  Ave.  C 11  3,007  3,433 

E.  4th,  Ave.  C,  E.  5th,  Ave.  B 11  3,153  3,618 

Division,  Rutgers,  E.  B'dway,  Pike...     7  1,171  2,182 

Madison,  Jefferson,  Monroe,  Rutgers. .     7  1,037  3,335 

Madison,  Scammel,  Monroe,  Gouveneur     7  1,044  1,354 

*  By  courtesy  of  Everybody's  Magazine.     The  figures  for  1902 
are  from  the  Tenement  House  Commission's  Report. 

166 


1,139 

1,615 

1,000 

2,180 

1,000 

2,967 

1,171 

3,260 

1,011 

2,655 

1,036 

2,865 

1,004 

1,710 

1,022 

1,400 

1,089 

1,376 

A  Note  About  Poverty 

Block    bounded    by  Ward  1902  April, 1909 

Monroe,  Market,  Hamilton,  Catherine.  7 
Monroe,  Rutgers,  Cherry,  Pelham ....  7 
Monroe,   Jefferson,   Cherry,   Rutgers . .     7 

Monroe,  Clinton,  Cherry,  Jefferson 7 

Rivington,  Orchard,  Delancey,  Allen . .  10 
Rivington,  Essex,  Delancey,  Ludlow . .  10 
Rivington,  Norfolk,  Delancey,  Essex..  10 
Delancey,  Allen,  Broome,  Eldridge...  10 
Delancey,  Orchard,  Broome,  Allen....   10 


Walk  through  one  of  these  teeming  regions,  take  note 
of  the  dirt  everywhere,  the  squalid,  slatternly,  and  dirty 
houses,  the  noisy,  crowded,  and  dirty  streets,  the  forlorn 
and  unkempt  appearance  of  everything,  the  total  absence 
of  objects  that  can  give  an  inspiration  of  beauty.  Enter 
one  of  these  tenement  houses,  go  through  the  narrow,  dark, 
and  vilely  odorous  hall  on  the  ground  floor,  up  the  dirty, 
rickety  stairway,  across  the  dark  landings,  into  the  homes 
of  some  of  these  people.  Take  note  of  what  they  have 
of  decency,  privacy,  comfort.  Go  into  one  of  the  interior 
rooms  used  as  bedchambers,  (in  some  cases  by  several 
persons),  unlighted,  unventilated,  without  even  an  opening 
upon  an  airshaft.  Remember  that  in  the  city  of  New 
York  there  are  330,000  of  such  rooms  used  for  human 
habitation.  Consider  what  these  places  must  be  in  the 
breeding  of  disease  germs;  then  remember  that  after  ten 
years  of  vigorous  effort  the  charitable  organizations,  the 
Health  Board,  and  the  philanthropists  of  New  York  have 
succeeded  in  letting  air  and  light  into  only  30,000  of  such 
rooms  out  of  the  360,000  that  existed  when  the  campaign 
began  against  them.  What  shall  we  deem  to  be  the  sig- 
nificance of  these  conditions? 

Take  as  a  type  of  the  hopeless  struggle  for  its  own 
preservation  that  confronts  society,  the  history  of  the 
notorious  "  Lung  Block  "  in  lower  New  York  City.     This 

167 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

place  was  for  years  infamous  among  the  health  authorities 
as  a  breeding  place  of  tuberculosis,  from  which  the  entire 
city  was  threatened.  At  last  Mr.  Ernest  Poole,  a  powerful 
and  versatile  writer,  took  the  matter  in  hand  and  pro- 
duced a  description  of  the  "  Lung  Block  "  that  startled 
the  community.  He  gave  the  statistics  of  the  cases  of 
tuberculosis  that  had  been  reported  from  this  deadly  spot, 
and  showed  that  its  existence  was  more  fatal  to  human 
life  than  some  famous  battles  had  been.  With  patient  care 
and  accuracy  he  revealed  the  causes  of  these  perils,  and 
he  awoke  such  a  revulsion  of  feeling  on  the  part  of  the 
public  that  the  repair  or  demolition  of  this  block  was 
imperatively  demanded.  All  this  happened  six  years  ago. 
To-day  the  "  Lung  Block  "  stands  where  it  has  stood  for 
nearly  a  century,  and  continues  its  former  functions  as  a 
destroyer  of  human  life.  The  only  changes  effected  have 
been  the  cutting  of  certain  windows  and  certain  holes  in 
the  roof  that  are  supposed  to  admit  light  and  air.  Such 
have  been  in  a  general  way  the  results  of  similar  efforts 
to  ameliorate  the  like  conditions. 

From  these  distressing  pictures  we  may  turn  for  a  con- 
trast to  the  new  tenement  houses  of  Berlin  and  other  Ger- 
man cities,  with  the  more  encouragement  that  these  offer 
an  indication  of  the  way  by  which  mankind  will  eventually 
escape  from  all  these  horrors.  The  new  Berlin  tenement 
houses,  light,  airy,  handsome,  clean,  with  courts,  gardens, 
playgrounds,  with  every  known  convenience  and  comfort, 
and  provided  at  low  rentals,  were  erected  from  the  surplus 
revenues  derived  from  the  government's  insurance  opera- 
tions, and  with  the  design  and  supervision  of  the  govern- 
ment. Under  the  system  in  vogue  in  the  United  States 
the  insurance  surplus  has  been  used  to  found  great  private 
fortunes,  to  build  private  yachts,  to  provide  private  pal- 

168 


A  Note  About  Poverty 

aces,  and  to  entertain  French  actresses;  because  in  the 
United  States,  insurance,  the  most  important  interest  of 
the  masses  of  people,  is  in  the  hands  of  private  specula- 
tion and  greed.  In  Germany  insurance  is  in  the  hands 
of  the  government,  and  its  surplus  fund  has  been  used 
by  the  government  to  maintain  and  further  public  health 
by  providing  sanitary,  attractive,  rational  homes  for  the 
masses.  For  if  other  nations  have  been  deceived  as  to 
the  fatal  products  of  poverty,  the  German  government  has 
come  in  the  last  twenty  years  to  understand  clearly 
what  these  things  mean.  It  has  perceived  that  all  its 
chances  of  future  greatness  and  success  depend  upon  the 
physical  and  mental  well  being  of  its  laboring  populations, 
and  it  has  determined  that  German  strength  shall  not  be 
destroyed  as  the  slum  is  destroying  the  strength  of  Ger- 
many's competitors  to-day  and  to-morrow. 

The  products  of  the  overcrowded  tenement  are  tubercu- 
losis, influenza,  epidemics  of  other  diseases,  and  crimes  that 
lay  the  rest  of  the  population  under  expense  and  subject  it 
to  incessant  danger.  Healthy  minds  do  not  grow  in  un- 
healthy bodies ;  the  human  race  is  so  constituted  that  healthy 
bodies  are  impossible  in  dark  rooms  and  without  fresh 
air,  sufficient  food,  sufficient  rest,  sufficient  sunlight.  When 
we  reflect  that  under  the  existing  organization  of  society 
poverty  must  steadily  increase,  that  the  result  of  the  present 
system  is  to  give  more  to  those  that  already  have  much 
and  to  leave  less  for  those  that  already  have  little;  that 
this  system  is  only  a  huge  pump  to  draw  from  the  masses 
the  fruits  of  the  earth  that  they  need,  and  confer  upon 
a  few  a  surplus  that  they  cannot  consume,  it  is  evident 
that  the  present  system  is  doomed.  It  will  assuredly 
achieve  its  own  destruction;  and  those  that  expend  time 
and  effort  in  its  defense  are  but  striving  against  the  in- 

169 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

evitable.  If  the  present  organization  of  Society  could 
endure  it  would  reduce  the  masses  of  men  to  such  a 
state  of  physical  and  mental  weakness  that  the  world's 
work  could  not  be  carried  on,  a  practically  impossible 
supposition. 


170 


CHAPTER  X 


THE    RECORD    OF    REGULATION 


The  domination  of  the  government  of  the  United  States 
by  the  great  railroad  Interests  was  foreseen  and  foretold 
more  than  a  generation  ago.  Rather  oddly,  two  men  that 
had  never  agreed  upon  anything  else,  and  about  many 
matters  were  bitter  antagonists,  came  to  be  of  one  mind 
on  this.  At  about  the  same  time,  though  quite  independ- 
ently, Wendell  Phillips  and  Jefferson  C.  Davis  uttered 
solemn  warnings  to  their  countrymen  against  the  perilous 
influence  of  railroad  corporations;  warnings  entirely  un- 
heeded, but  justified  within  the  next  twenty  years. 

Not  long  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  it  became 
evident  (to  look  merely  upon  the  commercial  and  not 
the  governmental  aspect  of  the  railroad  problem  in  Amer- 
ica) that  unless  some  check  or  control  were  provided  upon 
the  rate-making  practices  of  the  railroad  companies,  many 
communities  would  suffer  severely  because  of  arbitrary  and 
unjust  rates.  To  secure  such  a  check  or  agency  of  na- 
tional control  became  the  life  work  of  the  late  Senator 
Regan,  of  Texas.  His  project  to  establish  an  Inter-State 
Commerce  Commission,  that  should  represent  the  public 
and  have  judicial  control  over  railroad  operations  and 
rates,  was  urged,  if  I  remember  correctly,  upon  five  suc- 
cessive Congresses,  and  was  defeated  or  allowed  to  die  in 
four.  The  long  campaign  for  Senator  Regan's  bill  (a 
campaign  in  which  my  father  took  vigorous  part)  revealed 

171 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

three  principles  that,  I  have  since  observed,  pertain  to 
every  effort  to  curb  or  regulate  railroads  or  other  powerful 
corporations. 

First,  the  plan  for  an  Inter-State  Commerce  Commission 
was  earnestly  opposed  on  the  floors  of  both  Houses  of 
Congress  by  men  highly  reputed  for  personal  integrity 
and  patriotism.  These  men  stated  generally  as  a  ground 
of  their  objection  that  the  proposed  bill  would  be  unfair 
to  the  transportation  interests  of  the  country,  and  render 
very  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  the  operation  of  the  rail- 
roads at  a  profit  and  the  paying  of  dividends  on  railroad 
stock  on  which  the  prosperity  of  the  country  is  supposed 
to  depend.  Their  opposition,  therefore,  was  ostensibly 
based  upon  a  sole  regard  for  the  public  welfare.  Of 
some  of  these  men  it  was  certainly  true  that  their  political 
success  had  been  achieved  by  the  active  though  secret 
assistance  of  railroad  companies,  and  consideration  of 
this  fact  brought  about  rather  surprising  revelations. 
Thus,  for  example,  in  the  case  of  one  man  of  my  own 
state  whose  methods  became  very  well  known  to  me,  there 
was  disclosed  a  wonderful  political  organization  by  the 
railroad  that  traversed  the  district,  an  organization  freely 
used  in  behalf  of  this  member  or  of  any  other  member  that 
was  agreeable  to  the  company.  This  organization  embraced 
every  county  in  the  district,  every  township  in  every  county, 
and  was  in  its  way  one  of  the  most  perfect  political  ma- 
chines I  have  ever  known.  As  it  subsequently  appeared 
that  this  instance  was  in  all  respects  a  type  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  railroads  generally  exerted  their  influence,  and  as 
most  of  the  phases  of  this  case  happened  to  pass  under  my 
own  observation,  I  should  like  to  dwell  for  a  moment  on  the 
highly  instructive  aspects  of  a  matter  to  which  we  may  think 
too  little  attention  has  been  drawn. 

172 


The  Record  of  Regulation 

The  first  of  these  impressive  facts  is  that  the  railroad 
company's  political  machine  (which  included  a  particu- 
larly offensive  lobby,  and  was  maintained  for  merely  cor- 
rupt ends)  was  assiduously  served  by  men  of  the  highest 
standing  in  the  community.  Without  exception  these  men 
would  have  scorned  the  slightest  suggestion  that  they  could 
be  bribed  or  bought  to  betray  their  duty  to  the  country 
or  the  city.  Some  of  them  were  accounted  most  earnest 
patriots,  and  I  have  heard  them  on  public  occasions  de- 
nounce all  forms  of  corruption  and  in  terms  most  eloquent 
eulogize  purity,  honesty,  and  patriotism.  So  far  as  one 
could  judge,  they  were  in  all  this  most  sincere.  And  yet 
each  of  them  was  purchased  and  paid  for,  and  secretly  en- 
rolled in  the  service  of  a  public  enemy  more  dangerous  than 
any  that  ever  made  war  upon  their  country. 

This  brings  me  to  the  subject  of  indirect  bribery  in 
the  United  States,  a  factor  that  in  my  observation  has 
been  of  the  greatest  influence  in  all  our  affairs,  and  yet 
is  almost  never  referred  to.  The  means  by  which  the 
railroad  secured  the  services  it  needed  were  chiefly  by 
retainer  fees  to  lawyers,  and  the  useful  pass  to  other 
persons.  Every  county  along  the  railroad  line  produced 
a  regular  crop  of  damage  suits  at  law;  suits  by  farmers 
for  cattle  killed,  claims  from  merchants  and  shippers 
for  overcharges  and  swindles,  suits  in  which  the  rail- 
road sought  to  evade  its  taxes,  and  many  others.  These 
were  under  the  care  of  the  railroad's  legal  department, 
which  was  in  Chicago,  and  held  in  its  hands  the  whole 
huge  network  of  political  and  legislative  activities  by  which 
the  railroad  maintained  itself  in  its  privileges.  When  a 
legislature  was  to  be  bought,  a  convention  controlled,  or  a 
candidate  selected,  the  necessary  work  was  directed  from 
the  office  of  the  chief  counsel  in  Chicago. 

173 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

In  such  multiplicity  of  suits  there  was  wide  opportunity 
to  employ  local  attorneys,  and  to  be  retained  by  a  great 
railroad  company  had  for  a  practitioner  in  a  small  town 
threefold  attractions.  The  work  was  always  liberally  paid 
for,  it  was  paid  for  promptly,  and  it  conferred  an  un- 
deniable prestige,  for  it  showed  that  the  fame  and  skill 
of  this  practitioner  had  gone  as  far  as  the  metropolis, 
and  there  was  a  tradition  that  a  railroad  company  would 
employ  none  but  the  best  lawyers.  The  legal  profession 
was  overcrowded,  clients  were  few,  competition  was  keen, 
and  a  railroad  company's  retainers  were  choice  windfalls 
anywhere.  By  paying  for  the  defense  of  a  small  damage 
suit  about  five  times  as  much  as  the  service  was  worth, 
and  by  adding  a  pass,  the  railroad  company  could  count 
on  much  more  than  the  court  assistance  of  almost  any 
lawyer.  It  had,  in  fact,  purchased  that  man  and  all  of 
his  political  influence  for  a  year. 

There  were  many  cases  in  which  this  arrangement  was 
without  concealment,  but  what  interested  me  most  were 
the  many  other  cases  in  which,  because  of  the  high  stand- 
ing or  supposed  political  integrity  of  the  lawyer  or  firm, 
the  fact  of  the  purchase  was  effectually  disguised.  For 
instance,  I  have  seen  letters  from  the  general  counsel  of 
the  railroad  I  have  in  mind  written  to  its  legal  representa- 
tives in  small  Iowa  towns  purporting  to  deal  at  length  with 
some  pending  cases,  and  really  giving  the  adroitly  managed 
signal   for  the  lawyer   to   get  to  work  on   some  political 

job  in  his  neighborhood.     "  Smith  vs.  The  Chicago, 

& Railroad,"  the  letter  would  begin.     It  would  then 

discuss  this  case,  which  was  probably  a  suit  of  a  farmer 
for  two  hogs  killed  because  of  a  defective  cattle  guard, 
and  at  the  end  the  writer  would  say: 

"  By  the  way,  I  see  that  Simkins  is  a  candidate  for  the 

17  4> 


The  Record  of  Regulation 

Congress  nomination  in  your  district.  If  you  can,  with- 
out inconvenience,  do  something  for  him  I  wish  you  would, 
as  he  is  a  friend  of  mine."  That  was  all,  and  on  the 
face  of  it  most  innocent,  and  yet  in  nine  cases  in  ten  it 
concealed  black  devilry. 

Here  was  the  dispenser  of  employment,  the  man  upon 
whose  word  hung  fat  retainer  fees  and  much  distinction; 
ostensibly  he  was  politely  requesting  a  personal  favor  that 
was  in  the  line  of  the  lawyer's  business;  by  the  simplest 
rules  of  business  reciprocity  his  request  must  needs  be 
granted,  and  the  lawyer  was  made  of  adamantine  stuff 
that  could  resist  such  an  appeal.  As  a  rule,  he  went  out 
and  worked  for  Simkins;  as  a  rule,  also,  he  was  the  most 
skillful  politician  in  the  county,  for  upon  such  fell  the 
choice  of  the  railroad  company.  Very  often  he  was  sup- 
plied with  some  annual  and  many  trip  passes  signed  in 
blank.  With  all  these  aids  he  returned  from  his  county  a 
delegation  for  Simkins,  and  as  meanwhile  the  same  process 
had  been  in  operation  in  the  other  counties  in  the  district, 
Mr.  Simkins  was  presently  triumphantly  nominated. 

When  he  reached  Washington  he  was  opposed  to  the 
Inter-State  Commerce  Commission  bill  because  it  was  un- 
fair to  our  great  transportation  enterprises  and  threatened 
to  destroy  prosperity. 

By  a  similar  process  members  of  the  legislatures  were 
carefully  chosen,  so  that  undesirable  legislation  was  pre- 
vented in  the  states,  and  undesirable  persons  were  ex- 
cluded from  the  national  Senate.  I  could  even  wish  that 
the  process  ceased  there,  but  you  are  to  remember  that 
judges  were  also  nominated  and  elected,  that  the  goal  of 
every  young  lawyer's  ambition  was  to  be  a  judge,  and 
that  the  choice  of  the  judges  lay  chiefly  with  the  railroad's 
political  and  legal  department,  to  be  awarded  for  service 

175 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

done.  To  speak  irreverently  of  the  judiciary  is  in  this 
country  no  light  matter,  but  perhaps  I  may  be  allowed  to 
record  the  fact  that  in  my  observation,  at  least,  very  few 
suits  against  railroad  companies  were  eminently  successful, 
and  that  the  property  of  the  railroad  companies  in  Iowa 
was  assessed  at  one-fifth  as  much  as  other  property.  Pos- 
sibly the  facts  have  no  connection.  I  do  know,  however, 
that  in  one  year  one  railroad  company  spent  in  Iowa  more 
money  for  improvement  on  its  property  than  the  total 
assessment  of  all  its  property  in  the  state.  And  I  also 
know  that  all  judges  that  tried  cases,  sheriffs  that  drew  the 
juries,  assessors  that  regulated  taxes,  and  all  other  officers, 
state,  county,  and  city  had  free  passes.  I  can  recall  one 
case  where  a  farmer  that  had  been  trying  in  vain  for  years 
to  get  justice  against  a  railroad  company  finally  forced  his 
suit  to  trial  and  lost  it,  and  subsequently  discovered  that  all 
the  court  officers,  all  the  members  of  the  jury,  and  his  own 
attorney  carried  the  passes  of  the  railroad  he  was  suing. 

But  to  return  to  legislation,  with  which  we  are  most 
directly  concerned  here.  I  must  do  the  railroads  the  justice 
to  say  that  they  were  without  partisan  prejudice;  one 
political  party  was  in  their  eyes  as  good  as  another.  Thus, 
for  instance,  the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy  Railroad 
traverses  the  southern  part  of  the  state  and  has  lines  in 
three  or  four  congressional  districts.  The  first  district 
was  in  those  days  always  Democratic,  and  in  that  district 
the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy  Railroad  was  always 
intensely  Democratic.  The  next  district  to  the  west  was 
Republican,  and  in  that  district  the  Chicago,  Burlington 
&  Quincy  Railroad  was  always  intensely  Republican.  In 
Republican  counties  it  was  represented  by  Republican  at- 
torneys, in  Democratic  counties  by  Democratic  attorneys, 
and  I  have  seen  within  a  few  days  of  each  other  a  Re- 

176 


The  Record  of  Regulation 

publican  state  convention  and  a  Democratic  state  conven- 
tion each  dominated,  controlled  by,  and  chiefly  composed 
of  the  county  attorneys  of  the  railroad  companies.  In  fact, 
for  years  we  never  saw  anything  else,  and  at  every  con- 
vention some  railroad  employee  would  be  on  hand  with 
books  of  passes  to  accommodate  all  the  delegates  that  had 
done  their  duty.  This  was  no  more  the  practice  of  any  ■ 
one  railroad  than  of  all  the  railroads,  and  it  was  no  more 
the  practice  in  Iowa  than  in  all  the  Western  states.  I 
can  speak  of  this  with  perfect  confidence  because  I  saw 
it  in  the  performance  and  knew  well  the  fruits  thereof. 
I  have,  for  instance,  seen  the  pass-handler  with  a  fountain 
pen  in  one  hand  and  a  book  of  passes  in  the  other  standing 
at  the  door  of  a  state  convention  to  reward  the  faithful 
delegates,  and  subsequently  in  a  railroad  train  have  seen 
the  faithful  delegates  riding  on  their  well-earned  passes. 
As  to  other  than  Western  states,  and  particularly  as  to 
the  Southern  states,  I  have  no  such  personal  knowledge, 
but  I  am  given  to  understand  by  those  informed  in  such 
matters  that  the  custom  in  no  wise  differed. 

By  these  methods  men  that  would  have  been  of  im- 
movable virtue  if  approached  with  direct  offers  to  betray 
the  community  were  influenced  as  effectively  as  if  they 
had  been  bought  by  undisguised  corruption.  I  remember 
that  on  one  occasion  the  person  that  was  called  the  town 
crank  brought  this  matter  rather  forcibly  to  the  notice 
of  one  of  the  eminent  men  thus  bribed.  "  You  denounce 
aldermen  that  take  boodle,"  said  the  crank,  "  and  you  your- 
self take  the  railroad  company's  retainers  and  do  its 
crooked  work.     What's  the  difference?" 

But  the  attorney  was  only  amused.  "  That,"  he  said, 
"  is  all  in  the  way  of  business.  Of  course,  it  has  nothing 
to  do  with  my  convictions."      Yet  the  men  that  through 

177 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

this  lawyer's  endeavors  were  sent  to  Des  Moines  and  to 
Washington  were  no  less  certainly  the  tools  of  the  railroads 
than  if  for  sums  of  money  each  had  been  sold  in  the  market- 
place. 

Second,  it  appeared  that  the  ramifications  of  this  in- 
fluence were  enormous  and  totally  unsuspected  by  the 
general  public.  Thus,  for  instance,  every  bank  was  allied 
with  the  railroad  company,  not  for  reasons  of  sentiment, 
but  because  of  common  interests.  Nor  was  it  possible  to 
see  how  this  could  be  otherwise,  the  inter-relations  between 
the  banks  and  the  railroads  being  so  close.  The  railroads 
did  much  business  through  the  banks,  the  banks  all  held 
quantities  of  railroad  stock  as  collateral,  many  of  the  bank 
directors  were  railroad  stockholders,  the  railroads  helped 
the  banks,  the  banks  helped  the  railroads.  In  the  present 
organization  of  society,  the  power  of  any  financial  institu- 
tion, if  exerted  in  politics,  becomes  a  contradiction  of  the 
democratic  principle.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  power  too  dangerous 
in  any  democracy  to  be  exercised  without  active  super- 
vision. For  instance,  in  the  average  community  most 
of  the  merchants  are  dependent  upon  the  banks  for  the 
accommodations  with  which  business  is  carried  on.  These 
accommodations  are  granted  or  withheld  at  the  will  of 
the  bank  officers.  From  their  decision,  which  may  mean 
business  life  or  death  to  the  merchant,  he  has  no  appeal. 
He  is  at  his  bank's  mercy.  Therefore,  it  is  not  often  nec- 
essary for  any  bank  officer  to  make  a  personal  request  of 
a  merchant  in  behalf  of  any  man  or  measure  that  is  the 
subject  of  a  pending  election;  the  mere  fact  that  the  sym- 
pathies of  the  bank  are  known  in  a  general  way  to  lie 
on  one  side  or  another  is  usually  sufficient  to  influence  a 
merchant  whose  need  for  accommodations  may  be  urgent. 
It  is,  of  course,  perfectly  true  that  banks  seldom  interfere 

178 


The  Record  of  Regulation 

in  partisan  politics  (the  conspicuous  exception  being  in 
1896) ,  but  they  do  continually,  though  very  quietly,  exert 
themselves  concerning  primaries,  conventions,  and  candi- 
dates; and  these  exertions  are  far  more  important  both  to 
the  corporations  and  to  the  interests  of  the  public  than 
any  ordinary  partisan  activity  could  be. 

I  sat  one  day  in  the  office  of  a  man  in  Davenport,  Iowa, 
whose  convictions  and  sympathies  were  entirely  in  behalf 
of  a  certain  cause  and  a  certain  candidate  extremely  dis- 
tasteful to  the  railroad  companies.  While  we  were  dis- 
cussing this  cause  a  bank  called  this  man  on  the  telephone 
and  requested  his  presence.  He  went  to  the  bank  parlors, 
where  he  was  told  that  a  certain  business  arrangement 
much  to  his  advantage  was  open  to  him  if  he  would  refrain 
from  activity  for  the  anti-railroad  candidate.  This  man 
could  not  be  bribed  with  money  to  do  anything  contrary 
to  his  convictions.  He  could  be  easily  bribed  with  an 
opportunity  for  business  advantage,  not  essentially  dif- 
ferent in  principle  from  an  offer  of  money.  This  case 
was  in  no  way  peculiar.  It  has  been  duplicated  many 
times  in  my  observation,  and  doubtless  in  the  observation 
of  every  man  that  has  seen  politics  from  the  inside. 

All  of  the  great  corporations  are,  in  fact,  closely  allied, 
and  must  necessarily  be  so.  These  enterprises  inevitably 
tend  more  and  more  to  have  the  same  owners,  and  this 
is  an  ultimate  condition  that  was  certain  from  the  dawn 
of  united  effort  in  business,  and  from  the  time  when  the 
invention  of  steam  and  machinery  began  to  make  large 
combinations  of  capital  essential  (in  the  present  system  of 
society)  to  industrial  production.  Mr.  B.,  let  us  say,  in- 
vests money  in  railroad  stock.  In  the  process  of  time 
through  the  issuing  of  additional  stock,  and  through  the 
enhancement   of   values,   this   stock   yields   him   an   annual 

179 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

return  that  demands  investment.  He  cannot  hoard  it;  he 
cannot  dig  holes  in  the  ground  and  hide  it;  this  surplus 
return  must  be  invested.  The  number  of  investments  and 
the  variety  thereof  are  really  small.  Banks,  manufactories, 
and  more  railroad  securities,  mines,  and  real  estate  com- 
prise the  chief  investment  avenues.  As  the  process  of  con- 
solidation, unification,  and  combination  (which  is  the  mani- 
fest course  of  business  evolution)  has  gone  on,  all  these 
interests  have  come  to  have  about  the  same  controlling 
ownership,  so  that  incessantly  all  investments  tend  to  con- 
verge and  the  men  that  share  the  accumulated  capital  of 
the  country  feel  more  and  more  the  unity  of  their  inter- 
ests. Mr.  B.'s  investment  in  a  bank  of  the  surplus  earn- 
ings of  his  railroad  stock  becomes  a  bond  that  fastens 
the  railroad  company  and  the  bank  together.  They  are 
already  allied  because  the  bank  has  lent  money  on  the 
railroad  stock  as  collateral,  and  the  market  price  of  the 
stock  is  therefore  of  vital  moment  to  the  bank.  They  are 
now  further  bound  by  a  common  ownership.  It  was  for 
such  reasons  that  all  the  financial  institutions  of  the  coun- 
try were  opposed  to  Senator  Regan's  Inter-State  Com- 
merce Commission  bill,  just  as  they  have  been  opposed  to 
every  other  measure  looking  toward  the  limitation  of  rail- 
road power;  and  the  extent  of  this  influence  was  hardly 
less  than  that  of  the  railroads  themselves. 

Third,  the  true  interest  of  the  people  at  large,  which 
might  be  expressed  as  the  true  interest  of  democracy,  is 
always  inimical  to  the  interests  of  the  corporations  and 
the  financial  institutions.  The  course  of  a  conflict  between 
the  interests  of  the  public  and  the  interests  of  the  cor- 
porations has  usually  been  about  the  same,  and  I  take 
what  happened  in  the  case  of  Senator  Regan's  bill  as  the 
perfect  type  of  what  has  happened  many  times  since,  and 

180 


The  Record  of  Regulation 

will  doubtless  continue  to  happen  as  long  as  we  tolerate 
the  great  corporation. 

In  four  sessions  of  Congress  the  influence  of  the  rail- 
roads and  banks,  exerted  through  men  like  our  friend 
Simkins  and  elected  in  the  way  that  he  was  elected,  was 
sufficient  to  defeat  Senator  Regan's  bill.  All  this  time  the 
demand  of  the  public  that  such  a  measure  should  be 
enacted  was  steadily  increasing.  There  was,  in  fact,  every 
reason  why  the  public  discontent  should  increase.  The  rail- 
roads, without  any  form  of  national  control,  were  in  many 
regions  practicing  an  intolerable  tyranny.  Even  to  men 
ordinarily  careless  of  such  things,  the  fact  had  become 
apparent  that  the  railroads  were  the  greatest  power  in 
the  country,  and  it  was  a  question  even  then  whether  it 
were  not  too  late  for  the  national  government  to  curb 
them. 

At  last  this  public  conviction  swelled  into  an  irresistible 
demand  for  action.  In  many  congressional  districts  the 
people  were  so  much  in  earnest  on  this  question  that  the 
continuance  in  office  of  Mr.  Simkins  and  his  tribe  and 
the  pleasant  political  success  of  the  railroad  attorney  were 
seriously  threatened.  This  was  in  the  session  of  1886- 
1887.  Senator  Regan  had,  as  usual,  introduced  his  bill. 
A  great  many  petitions  from  all  parts  of  the  country, 
resolutions  of  public  meetings,  and  letters  of  constituents 
to  their  congressmen  insisted  that  the  bill  should  be  passed. 
It  was  then  in  the  hands  of  the  Commerce  Committee  of 
the  Senate.  By  this  committee  it  was  introduced  for 
passage  with  amendments  that  cut  out  the  heart  of  the 
measure  and  made  it  merely  nominal  by  depriving  the 
Inter-State  Commerce  Commission  of  any  real  authority 
over  the  railroads,  and  leaving  it  as  an  amiable  body  of 
purely  ornamental  purpose.     It  was  established  to  go  about 

181 


Why  1  Am  a  Socialist 

the  country,  to  listen  to  complaints,  to  sit  as  a  court  with 
much  solemnity,  and  then  to  render  decisions  that  were 
binding  upon  nobody.  It  could,  indeed,  issue  an  order  to 
a  railroad  to  amend  an  unjust  practice,  or  an  extortionate 
rate,  but  the  railroad  was  under  no  obligation  to  give  heed 
to  this  order  until  the  order  had  been  indorsed  by  the 
Federal  courts,  up  to  the  Supreme  Court,  if  the  railroad 
chose  to  carry  it  so  far. 

The  opponents  of  the  measure,  Mr.  Simkins  and  his  tribe 
in  both  Houses,  insisted  upon  these  amendments.  A  very 
long  and  weary  debate  ensued,  in  the  course  of  which  the 
public  lost  track  of  the  proceedings,  a  result  secured  by 
amending  the  amendments,  by  demanding  trivial  changes 
in  verbiage,  and  by  the  like  expedients,  until  even  the 
minds  of  legislative  experts  failed  to  follow  the  mazes  of 
the  discussion.  At  last  the  bill,  amended  until  every  feature 
that  could  really  affect  railroad  practices  or  establish  any 
degree  of  railroad  control  had  been  eliminated,  was  passed. 
Outside  of  Congress  no  one  analyzed  the  measure.  The 
fight  of  so  many  years  for  an  Inter-State  Commerce  law 
had  been  won.  Such  was  the  popular  verdict.  No  one 
stopped  to  inquire  whether  the  bill  really  represented  a 
victory  for  the  people  or  a  victory  for  the  railroad  com- 
panies. An  Inter-State  Commerce  measure  had  been 
passed.  It  was  now  to  go  into  effect,  and  all  agitation 
of  the  railroad  problem  promptly  came  to  an  end. 

Sixteen  years  passed  before  public  attention  could  be 
secured  to  the  fact  that  the  law  was  a  mere  jest,  and  that 
the  railroads  were  really  as  uncontrolled  and  extortionate 
as  they  had  been  before.  In  those  years  the  mere  existence 
of  the  law  was  in  the  public  mind  a  sufficient  answer  to 
every  complaint;  there  was  the  law,  an  Inter-State  Com- 
merce law,  a  law   for  which   the   public   had   fought   the 

182 


The  Record  of  Regulation 

railroads  for  many  years.  Under  that  law  things  could 
not  really  be  wrong. 

In  those  years,  too,  the  railroads  had  enjoyed  an  im- 
munity from  control  or  responsibility  as  complete  as  they 
had  ever  before  enjoyed.  From  every  point  of  view  the 
passage  of  the  bill  was  to  them  a  great  advantage;  nor 
was  their  smallest  benefit  in  the  almost  complete  silencing 
of  adverse  agitation.  All  the  substantial  fruits  of  victory 
were  with  them.  The  four  sessions  in  Congress  in  which 
they  had  defeated  Senator  Regan  brought  them  no  ad- 
vantage comparable  with  this  that  they  had  won  by  the 
final  passage  of  the  bill  in  the  shape  to  which  Mr.  Simkins 
and  his  tribe  had  reduced  it.  And  this,  I  have  since 
observed,  is  the  principle  that  underlies  all  of  these  at- 
tempts at  regulation  and  repression.  Not  one  so-called 
victory  for  the  public  in  these  regulative  ventures  has  been 
in  fact  anything  but  a  victory  for  the  corporations. 

For  further  illustration  of  these  truths  we  may  well 
proceed  to  the  next  chapter  of  the  history  of  railroad  regu- 
lation in  the  United  States.  By  1903  the  fact  had  become 
obvious  even  to  the  most  skeptical  that  the  railroad  situa- 
tion had  been  changed  in  no  important  particular  by  the 
Inter-State  Commerce  bill.  The  railroads  continued  to 
make  rates  on  an  arbitrary  and,  frequently,  an  unjust 
basis.  At  their  discretion  they  granted  the  forbidden  and 
illegal  passes  to  favored  shippers,  to  political  servitors,  or 
to  other  persons.  They  set  up  one  community  and  pulled 
down  another,  and  above  all,  there  was  a  loud  and  increas- 
ing clamor  of  discontent  growing  out  of  the  undiminished 
practice  of  granting  rebates  and  illegal  favors.  Discrimina- 
tions and  illegal  rate  reductions  were  in  use  everywhere, 
and  the  net  result  of  them  always  was  to  increase  the 
advantage  of  the  big  shipper,  the  big  dealer,  and  the  big 

183 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

manufacturer,  and  to  increase  at  the  same  time  the  dis- 
advantages of  the  small  competitor,  so  that  railroad  rate 
discrimination  became  a  factor  of  incalculable  power  and 
extent,  working  incessantly  to  draw  greater  wealth  into 
the  hands  of  those  already  wealthy  and  to  impoverish  the 
masses.  Great  firms  and  corporations  never  paid  the 
schedule  rates  on  any  shipment.  One  firm  in  Chicago  re- 
ceived from  one  railroad  an  average  of  $30,000  a  month 
in  rebates.  The  total  amount  paid  out  in  rebates  by  all 
the  railroads  of  Chicago  was  annually  a  stupendous  sum, 
distributed  solely  among  the  greater  enterprises.  Some  rail- 
roads maintained  in  their  offices  a  so-called  dark-room, 
that  is  to  say,  a  room  without  windows  or  natural  light, 
in  which  a  very  dim  gaslight  burned  in  one  corner.  Into 
this  room  a  shipper  or  his  agent  that  was  to  receive  a 
rebate  was  directed  by  the  companies'  agent.  He  went 
in,  shut  the  door,  a  man  that  he  could  not  see  handed  him 
a  roll  of  bills,  and  he  departed.  Other  railroads  or  fast 
freight  lines  employed  trusty  agents  that  went  about  de- 
livering rebates  at  back  doors,  or  in  saloons,  or  up  dark 
alleys.  An  officer  of  the  Pennsylvania  railroad,  being 
asked  by  an  investigating  committee  for  a  list  of  the  firms 
in  Pittsburg  that  were  in  receipt  of  rebates  from  his  com- 
pany, replied  that  if  the  committee  would  get  the  corpora- 
tion directory  of  Pittsburg  it  would  have  an  accurate 
list. 

Besides  the  rebates  that  were  given  directly  or  indirectly 
to  certain  firms  and  recognized  by  the  railroad  companies 
as  rebates,  there  were  two  other  systems  of  rebating  as 
vast,  as  injurious,  and,  to  the  just  mind,  still  more  offensive, 
because  they  were  carried  on  under  specious  disguises. 
These  were  the  private  car,  so  called,  and  the  terminal  rail- 
road.    The  private  freight  car  was  always  owned  by  some 

184 


The  Record  of  Regulation 

large  shipper.  For  the  hauling  of  this  car  the  railroad 
company  paid  to  the  owner  a  certain  sum  for  each  mile 
hauled.  This  was,  of  course,  in  effect  nothing  but  a  rebate 
to  the  large  shipper.  The  small  shipper  could  not  afford 
to  own  a  freight  car.  To  show  how  effective  was  the  prac- 
tice, I  may  mention  that  the  firms  composing  the  Beef  Trust 
owned  a  total  of  about  20,000  refrigerator  cars;  these 
cars  were  employed  partly  in  the  transporting  of  the  Beef 
Trust's  products,  and  on  a  carload  of  such  products  shipped 
from  Chicago  to  New  York,  for  example,  the  firm  received 
$7.50  mileage  for  the  car,  which  was  equivalent  to  an 
average  rebate  of  about  20  per  cent,  on  the  shipment,  and 
a  corresponding  advantage  to  the  Beef  Trust  firm  over  its 
small  competitor.  All  told  there  were  about  50,000  private 
cars  of  different  kinds,  each  representing  heavy  annual  re- 
bates to  favored  shippers. 

The  terminal  railroad  was  a  device  equally  iniquitous. 
A  large  manufacturing  firm  would  have  a  piece  of  side- 
track from  its  warehouse  to  the  main  line  of  the  railroad 
nearest,  this  sidetrack  being  perhaps  in  some  instances 
as  much  as  1,000  feet  long.  A  railroad  company  would 
be  organized  with  some  resounding  name,  like  The  Chi- 
cago, Lake  Shore  &  Pacific,*  and  composed  of  the  owners 
of  the  factory.  The  entire  property  of  this  railroad  com- 
pany would  be  the  piece  of  sidetrack  from  the  warehouse 
to  the  main  line.  The  great  railroad  company  would  then 
make  on  the  products  of  this  factory  what  is  called  a 
joint  rate.  That  is  to  say,  for  instance,  a  rate  to  New 
York  made  jointly  between  the  Chicago,  Lake  Shore  & 
Pacific  and  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  might  stipulate 
that  one-fourth  of  the  rate  should  be  paid  to  the  Chicago, 

*  As  a  rule  the  shorter  the  piece  of  track  the  more  pretentious  is 
the  name. 

185 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

Lake  Shore  &  Pacific,  and  the  rest  to  the  Pennsylvania. 
The  distance  hauled  over  the  terminal  railroad  would  be 
1,000  feet,  the  length  of  the  side  track;  the  distance  hauled 
over  the  Pennsylvania  might  approximate  1,000  miles. 
This  practice  was,  of  course,  nothing  in  the  world  but  the 
disguise  of  an  illegal  rebate.  At  the  time  I  am  treating 
of  it  had  become  very  common. 

The  general  unrest  and  dissatisfaction  with  the  existing 
railroad  conditions  reached  a  head  in  1903,  when  Congress 
was  again  petitioned  to  remedy  the  existing  abuses.  Sev- 
eral bills  were  introduced  to  this  end  and  urged  by  re- 
formers. The  usual  period  of  debate  and  delay  ensued. 
Finally,  it  was  announced  that  the  best  features  of  all 
the  bills  had  been  incorporated  in  a  measure  that  was 
credited  to  Senator  Elkins,  but  was  really  drawn  by  one 
of  the  ablest  railroad  executives  we  have  ever  had.  The 
avowed  purpose  was  to  make  the  granting  of  rebates  and 
discriminations  more  difficult.  Possibly  no  better  com- 
ment on  regulation  as  a  cure  for  economic  evils  is  needed 
than  the  fact  that  the  result  of  the  bill  was  to  make  rebating 
and  the  granting  of  discriminations  both  easier  and  safer. 
For,  whereas  the  old  law,  though  never  enforced,  carried 
the  penalty  of  imprisonment  for  these  offenses,  the  new 
law,  in  a  paragraph  not  generally  commented  upon,  abol- 
ished imprisonment  and  substituted  a  mild  fine,  which,  of 
course,  would  be  paid,  not  by  the  individual,  but  by  the 
corporation. 

The  ridiculous  futility  (for  all  public  purposes)  of  this 
enactment  having  become  apparent,  and  the  complaints 
from  the  plundered  shippers  and  consumers  having  be- 
come an  intolerable  burden,  President  Roosevelt  issued  his 
famous  message  of  December,  1904,  in  which  he  proclaimed 
the  necessity  of  dealing  radically  with  so  grave  a  situation. 

186 


The  Record  of  Regulation 

He  set  forth  quite  clearly  (so  far  as  he  went)  the  injustice 
and  great  injury  to  the  general  public  that  always  result 
from  rebates  and  rate  discriminations,  and  while  he  did 
not  apprehend  the  full  extent  of  the  practice,  ample  excuse 
for  him  lies  in  the  fact  that  this  was  knowledge  possessed 
only  by  the  expert  and  the  student  that  had  devoted  much 
time  to  the  subject.  The  average  citizen  is  always  content 
to  think  that  the  laws  are  obeyed  except  by  what  are  called 
the  criminal  classes.  He  obeys  the  laws  himself,  he  is 
respectable;  therefore,  all  other  respectable  men  obey  the 
laws.  Managers  of  railroads  are  generally  respectable  men; 
therefore,  they  generally  obey  the  laws.  The  laws  of  the 
nation  strictly  forbid  rebating;  therefore,  most  railroad 
managers  do  not  rebate.  Thus  the  average  citizen  who 
would  not  have  believed  (at  that  time)  that  every  day,  many 
times,  and  in  more  than  one  way,  every  railroad  company 
in  the  United  States  deliberately  violated  the  national  laws. 
He  would  not  have  believed,  for  instance,  that  every  rail- 
road granted  rebates,  and  that  in  every  considerable  town  in 
the  United  States  the  largest  shippers  had  an  unfair  and 
criminal  advantage  in  freight  rates.  He  would  even  have 
been  very  slow  to  believe  (at  that  time)  that  these  criminal 
discriminations  had  built  up  the  trusts  under  whose  ex- 
tortions he  was  beginning  to  groan.  He  would  not  have 
thought  that  only  a  criminal  conspiracy  with  the  railroads 
had  given  birth  to  the  oil  monopoly,  or  that  only  illegal 
rebates  had  made  possible  the  construction  of  the  Beef 
Trust ;  that  every  great  monopoly  in  the  country  was  operat- 
ing with  reduced  railroad  charges,  and  it  was  this  ad- 
vantage that  crushed  every  competitor,  and  in  every  in- 
dustry gave  to  the  preponderating  concern  the  control  of 
the  market.  Even  the  small  tradesmen  that  were  being 
crushed   out  and   ruined   by   such  changes   could  not  see 

187 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

the  origin  of  the  changes  and  yet  the  direct  origin  was 
exactly  the  same  in  every  instance. 

Mr.  Roosevelt's  message  contained  the  famous  words, 
"  Above  all,  the  highways  of  the  nation  must  be  kept  open 
to  all  upon  equal  terms,"  at  once  a  rallying  cry  to  all 
that  agreed  with  him  in  holding  these  evils  could  be  abol- 
ished by  regulating  them.  The  country  gave  him  a  mar- 
velously  united  support;  not  since  the  days  of  Jackson 
and  the  United  States  Bank  had  any  President  had  the 
masses  of  the  people  so  solidly  behind  him.  With  dogged 
persistence  and  skill  he  brought  to  the  fight  all  the  power 
and  resources  of  his  office. ,  Patronage  is  the  substance 
of  the  President's  power  in  Congress;  the  Constitu- 
tion has  so  hedged  him  about  that  otherwise  he  has 
little  authority;  but  he  can  always  bestow  or  withhold  the 
post  offices,  and  with  these  he  can  bring  into  line  many 
members  that  are  insecure  in  their  seats.  This  great  power 
Mr.  Roosevelt  strained  to  the  utmost  and  beyond  all  prece- 
dent, supporting  it  at  the  same  time  with  personal  appeals, 
argument,  and  the  bullying  of  the  weaker  members,  all 
his  effort  being  directed  toward  the  passing  of  a  bill  that 
would  cure  the  rate  discrimination  evil. 

He  was  opposed  at  every  turn  by  all  the  power  of  the 
railroads,  the  banks,  and  the  allied  institutions;  these  also 
had  seldom  shown  a  more  united  front.  The  situation,  in 
fact,  precisely  duplicated  the  situation  when  the  original 
Inter-State  Commerce  act  was  passed.  The  corporations 
fought  everything  to  the  last  ditch.  When  they  saw  that 
the  pressure  from  the  country  was  too  great,  and  that  the 
supremacy  of  their  political  organization  was  in  danger, 
they  took  the  most  innocuous  of  the  pending  measures  for 
railroad  regulation  and  began  to  amend  it.  As  they  struck 
out  one  vital  feature  after  another  the  advocates  of  rail- 

188 


The  Record  of  Regulation 

road  regulation  protested  and  objected.  In  every  skirmish 
their  guns  were  silenced  by  the  one  argument.  If  they 
yielded  they  could  get  some  kind  of  a  measure  passed; 
if  they  persisted  in  fighting  there  would  be  no  enactment. 
On  these  terms  Mr.  Roosevelt  himself  more  than  once 
surrendered.  When  at  last  the  bill  had  been  shorn  of 
every  feature  that  could  really  interfere  with  railroad  ex- 
tortions it  was  allowed  to  pass.  As  in  the  former  case, 
the  debate  had  been  long  strung  out,  amendments  had  been 
piled  upon  amendments,  and  all  persons  that  had  any- 
thing else  to  do  ex«ept  to  watch  this  one  struggle  had  lost 
the  sequence  of  changes.  In  the  end  the  people  hailed  the 
passage  of  the  bill  as  a  victory  for  their  cause  and  a 
defeat  for  the  railroads,  and,  of  course,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  it  was  a  victory  for  the  railroads  and  a  defeat  for 
the  people. 

Under  the  operation  of  this  law  not  one  essential  fact 
in  the  railroad  rate  situation  has  been  changed;  whatever 
has  been  changed  has  related  to  the  names  and  externals 
of  things,  not  to  their  substance.  As  for  instance,  the  so 
called  free  passes  have  been,  to  a  considerable  extent, 
abolished,  but  favors  to  big  shippers,  of  which  the  free 
pass  was  only  one  form  and  expression,  continue  as  before. 
The  general  passenger  agent  does  not  write  out  a  pass  for 
the  representative  of  a  great  firm  that  ships  many  goods; 
but  a  ticket,  the  price  of  which  is  subsequently  allowed  on  a 
claim  account,  is  easily  provided.  The  rebate  agent  is  no 
longer  a  recognized  officer  of  the  railroad  organization;  re- 
bates do  not  appear  as  such  on  the  books ;  but  in  most  rail- 
road offices  the  Claims  and  Allowances  account,  for  instance, 
has  wonderfully  swollen.  If  a  great  firm  presents  claims 
in  a  month  for  $30,000  for  goods  injured  or  delayed  in 
transit,   who  is   to   object   if   the   claim  be   allowed,   and 

189 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

whose  business  is  it?  The  allowing  or  disallowing  of 
the  claim  rests  entirely  with  the  railroad  management;  no 
one  else  has  a  word  to  say  about  it;  except  for  the  firm 
no  one  else  knows  anything  about  the  basis,  origin,  or 
actual  nature  of  that  claim.  If  the  management  chooses 
to  allow  the  claim,  no  authority  has  any  right  to  dispute 
the  allowance;  and  the  whole  history  of  the  transaction  is 
buried  forever  under  one  book  entry  that  reveals  nothing. 

There  was  a  very  broad  intimation  of  the  extent  to 
which  this  practice  is  carried  in  the  proceedings  of  the 
government  against  a  Chicago  packing  house  in  January, 
1909,  but  it  naturally  passed  without  much  remark. 

Similarly,  the  whole  Supplies  Account  in  many  railroad 
organizations  has  become  the  subject  of  more  than  suspi- 
cion. Here  is  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  for  instance, 
with  much  freight  to  be  carried.  Every  railroad  consumes 
a  great  deal  of  oil,  lubricating  oil,  axle  grease,  illuminating 
oil.  Now,  if  a  railroad  is  willing  to  pay  for  its  oil  30 
cents  a  gallon  instead  of  1 5,  it  is,  of  course,  entirely  natural 
and  within  the  limits  of  business  good  sense  if  the  Standard 
Oil  Company  reciprocates  by  giving  many  freight  ship- 
ments to  such  an  excellent  and  liberal  customer.  Many 
oils  are  really  worth  30  cents  a  gallon,  and  more.  If  oil 
that  is  worth  15  cents  a  gallon  is  included  with  oil  that 
is  worth  30  cents  a  gallon,  that  is  the  affair  of  the  railroad 
management,  and  no  district  attorney  will  ever  find  it  out. 
Oil  is  by  no  means  the  only  supply  that  can  be  had  from 
large  shippers.  The  clerks  that  make  these  entries  may 
exchange  winks  and  nods,  but  probably  not  one  of  them 
has  the  complete  story  of  the  purchase,  and  whatever  he 
may  suspect  he  has  no  testimony  that  the  courts  would 
entertain.  Rebating,  beyond  doubt,  has  been  made  more 
secret   than    ever    before;    possibly    it    is    therefore    more 

190 


The  Record  of  Regulation 

difficult,  and  to  a  slight  degree  discouraged,  but  the  essence 
of  the  practice  remains  the  same.  Nay,  in  one  aspect 
it  is  certainly  worse  for  now  the  big  firm  has  more  than 
ever  before  the  crushing  advantage  upon  the  small  firm, 
and  to  that  extent  the  evil  of  unequal  wealth  distribution 
is  augmented. 

Yet  with  all  the  vast  wrong  wrought  by  this  device,  one 
cannot  deny  that,  while  the  rebate  is  illegal  and  criminal, 
it  is  under  the  present  system  perfectly  natural,  logical, 
and  inevitable.  The  men  that  defy  the  Federal  statutes 
and  grant  rebates  are  only  following  the  higher  law  imposed 
upon  them  by  the  economic  situation.  Nothing  is  so  foolish 
as  to  denounce  or  condemn  them;  they  but  do  what  they 
are  compelled  to  do.  Strenuous  persons  that  have  much 
indignation  about  this  matter  may  feel  surer  of  their  own 
great  virtue;  but  for  my  part,  if  I  were  the  general  freight 
agent  of  an  American  railroad,  I  should  grant  rebates, 
law  or  no  law.  And  if  the  law  forbade  me,  I  should  say 
that  the  law  was  wrong,  and  not  I,  because  the  law 
prohibited  the  thing  that  in  existing  circumstances  abso- 
lutely must  be  done.  I  should  say  that  I  had  been  em- 
ployed to  deal  with  a  certain  situation;  neither  I  nor  any 
other  man  had  created  that  situation;  and  my  duty  to  the 
interests  confided  to  my  care  was  a  higher  consideration 
than  an  impossible  law  passed  by  men  that  had  no  ac- 
quaintance with  the  facts.  I  should  say  that  if  Congress 
wished  to  stop  rebating,  it  should  stop  the  cause  of  rebat- 
ing, and  until  it  did  so,  and  showed  some  recognition  of 
things  as  they  are  in  this  world  and  not  as  they  may 
be  in  the  New  Jerusalem,  I  should  go  ahead  and  grant 
rebates,  and  take  the  risk.  And  as  I  have  for  myself, 
as  a  rule,  no  greater  pretensions  to  viciousness  than  most 
of  my  contemporaries,  I  believe  that  other  men,  including 

191 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

the  chief  protestants  of  virtue,  would  in  the  like  circum- 
stances do  exactly  the  same  thing. 

And,  of  course,  in  existing  circumstances,  I  should  either 
grant  rebates  or  lose  my  position;  and,  again,  in  existing 
circumstances,  I  do  not  see  wherein  a  man  is  called  upon 
for  self-immolation  or  martyrdom.  To  grant  rebates  is 
part  of  the  national  railroad  business  as  at  present  con- 
ducted; why  make  an  individual  the  victim  of  presidential 
wrath  instead  of  the  system?  Much  cry  has  gone  up  that 
all  the  officers  of  all  the  railroads  that  violate  anti-rebate 
laws  ought  to  be  put  into  jail.  Those  that  cry  thus  seem 
never  to  have  reflected  that  if,  in  existing  conditions,  you 
were  to  imprison  every  railroad  officer  in  the  United  States, 
existing  conditions  would  be  no  whit  changed,  and  the 
successors  of  the  jailed  men  would  assuredly  proceed  to 
repeat  the  same  old  offenses  in  the  same  old  way,  or  some 
other. 

Look  for  a  moment  and  impartially  at  the  situation  as 
it  is.  Here  from  Chicago,  for  instance,  extend  eastward  to 
the  seaboard  nine  railroads.  All  of  these  have,  to  be 
sure,  about  the  same  owners,  are  connected  with  about  the 
same  interests,  and  always  make  a  common  cause  when 
attacked.  Yet  each  has  a  separate  general  freight  agent 
or  freight  traffic  manager,  or  whatever  the  officer  may  be 
called,  whose  duty  is  to  secure  the  largest  possible  amount 
of  business  for  his  railroad.  This  man  holds  his  position 
solely  on  the  basis  of  results.  He  must  show  results,  he 
must  show  an  increase  of  tonnage  carried ;  that  is  what  he  is 
hired  for.  The  increase  is  imperatively  demanded,  because 
it  must  appear  in  the  annual  report;  otherwise  the  road 
is  held  by  the  public  not  to  be  in  a  prosperous  condition, 
the  price  of  its  stock  may  be  affected,  and  very  unpleasant 
results  may  follow.     For  one  thing,  the  men  that  control 

192 


The  Record  of  Regulation 

it  may  lose  their  hold  upon  its  market  value  by  which 
they  are  enabled  to  play  the  games  that  reap  them  their 
greatest  profits.  Therefore,  the  tonnage  showing  must  be 
healthy  and  satisfactory,  and  that  it  may  be  so,  the  freight 
agent  must  strain  every  nerve  to  obtain  for  his  road  every 
possible  shipment. 

Here  is  a  large  firm  of  dry-goods  dealers  in  Chicago, 
let  us  say,  merely  for  an  illustration;  there  are  hundreds 
of  cities  similarly  situated,  but  let  us  take  the  most  obvious 
illustration.  This  firm  receives  and  dispatches  annually 
great  quantities  of  freight,  nearly  all  of  which  it  can  send 
by  whatsoever  route  it  may  select.  Here  are  nine  rail- 
roads between  Chicago  and  the  seaboard,  over  any  of  which 
the  firm  can  ship  freight.  Which  shall  it  choose?  Let  us 
be  fair.  Shall  it  take  one  route  because  the  scenery  is 
beautiful?  Or  another  because  it  has  a  resonant  name? 
Or  another  for  reasons  of  sentimental  regard?  Or  shall 
it  distribute  its  business  among  the  nine,  taking  care  that 
no  railroad  receives  a  larger  share  than  another?  Not 
unless  the  management  has  lost  its  wits.  By  all  the  rules 
and  customs  and  principles  of  business,  the  only  possible 
ground  upon  which  it  can  decide  between  one  railroad  and 
another  is  the  ground  of  relative  advantage  to  itself;  and 
as  all  the  railroads  ship  goods  in  about  the  same  time, 
and  with  about  the  same  care,  the  selection  can  only  be 
made  of  the  road  that  offers  the  lowest  rates. 

This  forces  the  freight  agent  to  make  concessions.  He 
must  get  that  freight  shipment,  or  lose  his  position.  He 
must  make  concessions,  or  he  will  not  get  the  shipment. 
He  knows  that  even  if  he  were  to  be  Spartan  and  quixotic 
and  refuse  to  make  the  concession,  no  possible  good  would 
result.  The  company  would  continue  to  dismiss  general 
freight  agents  until  it  found   one  that  would  secure   the 

193 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

shipment.  Therefore,  he  makes  the  concession,  breaks  the 
law,  takes  the  risk,  secures  the  shipment,  and  retains  his 
position:  which,  under  existing  conditions,  is  exactly  what 
a  reasonable  man  would  expect  him  to  do. 

That  is  why  the  latest  railroad  regulation  experiment 
is  a  failure,  and  why  every  person  of  the  least  practical 
acquaintance  with  existing  conditions  must  have  known 
from  the  beginning  that  it  would  be  a  failure. 

Three  very  simple  tests  of  the  extent  of  its  failure  can 
readily  be  applied  by  any  one  interested. 

First,  in  the  first  twelve  months  after  it  went  into  opera- 
tion, the  number  of  complaints  against  the  railroads,  filed 
by  citizens  with  the  Inter-State  Commerce  Commission, 
did  not  diminish,  but  increased. 

Second,  a  very  considerable  part  of  the  rebating  about 
which  President  Roosevelt  so  earnestly  complained  was 
carried  on  by  the  private  cars  before  mentioned.  These 
private  cars  carry  on  their  traffic  exactly  as  before,  their 
number  in  the  last  three  years  has  not  diminished,  but 
considerably  increased,  and  each  private  car  is  at  all  times 
a  disguise  for  rebates,  and  has  indeed  no  other  reasons 
to  exist. 

Third,  the  terminal  railroad,  as  before  mentioned,  was 
another  prolific  and  grievous  source  of  rate  discrimina- 
tions and  rebates ;  and  terminal  railroads  continue  to  collect 
toll  and  disguise  rebates. 

From  these  facts  it  is  sufficiently  evident  that  every 
attempt  to  meet  the  railroad  problem  and  the  corporation 
problem  by  regulating  them  must  necessarily  be  a  failure, 
and  this  no  matter  how  earnestly  and  conscientiously  or 
skillfully  or  persistently  the  attempt  may  be  made.  Noth- 
ing can  possibly  be  gained  by  regulating  an  evil,  except  for 
those   that   reap   profits   from   the   evil,    for   such   win   the 

194 


The  Record  of  Regulation 

advantages  that  lie  in  the  diverting  of  public  attention 
and  in  the  prolonging  of  present  conditions. 

I  feel  moved  here  to  give  a  little  illustration  of  the 
actual  fruits  of  this  kind  of  symptomatic  treatment  that 
we  have  elected  to  waste  our  time  with.  One  of  the  preg- 
nant sources  of  complaint  by  shippers  and  consumers  was 
the  form  of  private  freight  car  to  which  I  have  previously 
referred,  the  car  that  carried  refrigerating  apparatus,  and 
was  used  for  the  carrying  of  perishable  commodities. 
Few  persons  outside  of  the  trade  have  any  idea  of 
the  extent  and  importance  of  the  functions  of  this  car. 
I  cannot  now  go  into  the  details,  but  it  is  sufficient 
to  say  that  a  very  large  part  of  the  fruits  and  the  vege- 
tables consumed  everywhere  in  the  United  States  is  carried 
at  some  stage  in  refrigerator  cars,  and  subject  to  the 
charges  for  such  carriage;  which  are,  of  course,  always  re- 
flected in  the  price  paid  by  the  consumer.  Since  the  intro- 
duction of  this  car  an  enormous  business  has  grown  up 
of  growing  fruits  and  vegetables  in  particularly  favored 
regions  and  shipping  them  to  more  northern  localities. 

Tbe  great  majority  of  these  refrigerator  cars  are  owned 
and  operated  by  the  firms  composing  the  Beef  Trust.  For 
their  owners  they  gather  revenue  in  two  ways.  First,  they 
receive  from  the  railroad  that  hauls  them  a  mileage  rate, 
which  alone  earns  for  them  an  annual  average  income  of 
about  50  per  cent,  on  the  cost  of  the  car.  Second,  the 
owners  levy  upon  the  shipper  what  is  called  the  icing 
charge,  which  is  chiefly  an  arbitrary  tribute  extorted  ap- 
parently on  the  basis  of  what  can  be  collected.  In  the 
investigations  that  preceded  the  agitation  of  1901,  remark- 
able things  were  discovered  about  these  icing  charges.  In- 
stances were  adduced  in  which  the  icing  charges  on  a 
carload  of  fruit  or  vegetables  from  Tennessee  to  Chicago, 

195 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

for  instance,  were  greater  than  the  freight  rate.  In- 
numerable instances  were  found  in  which  the  icing  charge 
was  as  much  as  five  times  the  total  cost  of  all  the  ice  used 
and  all  the  labor  employed.  One  typical  instance  became 
famous.  Lawton,  Michigan,  is  a  center  for  fruit  ship- 
ments, a  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles  from  Chicago.  The 
time  occupied  by  a  carload  of  fruit  from  Lawton  to  Chicago 
is  about  twelve  hours.  A  car  loaded  with  grapes  at  Lawton 
one  evening  would  be  in  Chicago  the  next  morning.  The 
icing  charge  on  this  car  was  $25 ;  the  ice  actually  consumed 
in  icing  the  car  cost  $2.50.  The  rest  of  the  icing  charge 
represented  clear  profit  to  the  owners  of  the  car,  who  also 
received  money  from  the  railroad  that  hauled  the  car. 

The  extortion  in  this  case  was  so  apparent  and  so  easily 
understood  that  widespread  attention  was  called  to  it.  At 
the  height  of  the  agitation  the  owners  of  the  refrigerator 
cars  admitted  that  possibly  some  of  their  charges  might 
need  revision,  which  they  professed  a  willingness  to  make. 
Accordingly,  the  Lawton  charge  was  selected  as  the  charge 
to  be  revised.  It  was  reduced  from  $25  to  $18.  Other 
charges  less  celebrated,  but  no  less  extortionate,  were  al- 
lowed to  remain.  Of  all  the  agitation  against  the  re- 
frigerator car  the  net  result,  therefore,  was  to  save  ship- 
pers of  fruit  from  Lawton  to  Chicago  the  sum  of  $7. 
There  are  those  that  assert  that  even  this  reduction  in 
their  earnings  was  made  up  to  the  refrigerator  car  com- 
panies in  other  ways,  and  in  other  directions,  but  if 
this  assertion  is  true,  I  have  no  information  on  the 
subject. 

What  attempts  to  regulate  these  evils  really  mean  may 
be  judged  again  from  the  familiar  instance  of  the  state  of 
Missouri  and  the  Beef  Trust.  When  the  Missouri 
authorities    had    succeeded    in    convicting    the    firms    that 

196 


The  Record  of  Regulation 

compose  the  Beef  Trust  of  operating  in  defiance  of  the 
Missouri  law  a  combination  in  restraint  of  trade,  a 
heavy  fine  was  levied  upon  each  of  these  offending  firms. 
On  the  day  that  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  state  affirmed 
the  judgment  of  the  lower  court  the  fines  were  paid,  and 
the  price  of  meat  was  advanced  so  that  by  nightfall  the 
firms  had  more  than  recovered  the  amounts  of  the  fines 
they  paid,  which  they  continued  to  recover  daily  for  some 
weeks.  Of  course,  the  true  meaning  of  this  proceeding 
was  that  the  people  of  Missouri  had  fined  themselves  not 
once  but  many  times  for  the  lawlessness  of  the  Beef  Trust, 
and  the  lawless  Beef  Trust  not  only  went  unpunished, 
but  from  the  attempt  to  punish  it  for  breaking  the  law 
actually  secured  a  larger  profit.  This  seems  to  be  a  form 
of  vicarious  atonement  most  undesirable  for  the  public 
welfare.  Yet,  of  course,  it  is,  and  always  must  be,  in- 
separable from  every  attempt  to  punish  lawbreaking  cor- 
porations by  fining  them,  or  every  attempt,  indeed,  to  regu- 
late economic  evils  and  still  preserve  their  cause.  Nothing 
conceivable  by  man  seems  so  absurd  as  the  recent  cam- 
paign against  lawbreaking  corporations  that  sought  to 
punish  them  by  inflicting  fines,  in  one  famous  case  amount- 
ing to  $29,000,000.  That  the  mental  operations  of  the 
gentlemen  directing  these  prosecutions  should  have  been 
so  limited  as  their  words  indicated  seems  beyond  belief. 
When  a  corporation  is  subjected  to  a  fine,  of  course  there 
is  and  can  be  no  possible  source  from  which  it  can  draw 
the  money  to  pay  that  fine  except  from  the  public;  there- 
fore, every  fine  levied  upon  any  corporation  is  a  fine  levied 
upon  the  public,  and  instead  of  regretting  that  Judge 
Landis's  fine  of  $29,000,000  on  the  Standard  Oil  Company 
was  overturned  by  the  higher  court,  the  people  of  the  United 
States  should  have  most  heartily  rejoiced.     By  the  reversal 

197 


Why  1  Am  a  Socialist 

of  Judge  Landis's  decision  they  were  saved  the  payment 
of  $29,000,000  not  only  once  but  many  times. 

Nor  has  there  ever  been  devised  by  any  human  mind 
anywhere  any  other  means  of  mitigating  the  evils  of  the 
present  system,  and  at  the  same  time  preserving  the  system. 
Many  times  in  many  countries  the  attempt  has  been  made, 
and  always  with  the  same  result.  The  reason  for  its  failure 
is  very  simple.  Under  existing  conditions  the  thing  that 
the  law  forbids  the  corporation  to  do  is  the  very  thing 
that  it  must  do,  and  the  thing  that  it  ought  to  do,  and  the 
thing  that  in  existing  conditions  is  right  for  it  to  do.  Evo- 
lution is  a  much  greater  force  than  man-made  law.  Com- 
binations in  so-called  restraint  of  trade  did  not  originate 
in  the  peculiar  devilry  of  individual  men.  They  originated 
in  changing  conditions,  world-wide  and  irresistible,  that 
marked  the  successive  stages  of  a  vast  industrial  evolution. 
The  Congress  of  the  United  States  might  as  well  have 
passed  laws  against  the  glacial  period  or  the  old  red  sand- 
stone. Trusts  are  as  certainly  a  product  of  evolution  as 
any  geological  epoch  has  been,  and  the  spectacle  of  official 
or  other  gentlemen  fighting  the  evolutionary  windmill  by 
passing  railroad  rate  regulations  and  tilting  valorously  in 
the  courts  is  merely  for  the  laughter  of  the  ages. 

Yet  I  must  not  be  understood  as  maintaining  that  with 
the  passing  years,  and  amid  the  prodigious  and  vociferous 
efforts  of  reformers,  the  methods  of  the  railroad  have  per- 
sisted without  alteration.  On  the  contrary,  looking  back 
now,  one  can  see  a  decided  change — in  the  super- 
ficies of  things  if  not  in  their  essence.  I  will  illustrate 
what  I  mean.  The  people  of  Davenport,  Iowa,  where 
I  was  born  and  bred,  carried  on  for  years  a  desultory 
warfare  against  the  railroad  company  that  supplied  them 
(at  a  high  rate)   with  transportation,  and,   I  must  admit, 

198 


The  Record  of  Regulation 

seemed  always  to  regard  them  as  its  vassals  and  serfs. 
To  secure  a  measure  of  relief  through  the  blessed  medium 
of  competition,  the  citizens  had  formed  a  company  of  their 
own  and  built  a  short  railroad  to  the  East,  providing  a 
new  outlet.  The  money  for  this  enterprise  was  raised 
largely  by  public  subscription,  and  I  well  remember  the 
general  rejoicing  when  the  line  was  opened,  an  occasion 
celebrated  in  a  popular  excursion  via  the  new  route  to 
Cincinnati.  Public  satisfaction  was  of  short  life;  in  a 
year  or  two  it  was  apparent  that  the  new  road  was  pass- 
ing into  the  control  of  the  old,  and  when  the  process  was 
complete  most  of  the  persons  that  had,  with  such  excellent 
motives,  invested  money  for  the  relief  of  the  community, 
found  that  they  had  lost  their  investment.  Some  of  these 
losses  were  acute;  and  I  particularly  recall  one  enthusi- 
astic citizen  that  had  put  all  of  his  fortune  into  the  new 
venture,  and  was  glad  to  obtain  a  position  as  letter  carrier. 
A  similar  attempt  to  win  freedom  by  blessed  competi- 
tion through  a  railroad  constructed  to  the  north  having 
met  with  a  similar  fate,  the  community  next  sought  relief 
by  water  competition.  My  father,  who  had  been  very 
active  in  all  of  these  movements,  led  the  campaign  for  a 
canal  to  connect  the  Mississippi  River  at  Davenport  with 
the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal,  and  thus  secure  a  water- 
way to  the  Great  Lakes,  a  project  (since  realized)  of 
which  he  was  the  originator.  To  further  this  enterprise 
many  conventions  and  meetings  were  held,  and  an  associa- 
tion of  local  merchants  was  formed,  in  which  one  of  the 
prominent  members  was  a  wholesale  dealer  of  the  city, 
whom  I  shall  call  here  Mr.  S.  His  name  had  a  different 
initial,  but  he  is  still  in  active  business,  and  there  is  no 
good  reason  why  lie  should  be  subjected  to  possible  annoy- 
ance.    At  one  of  the  first  meetings  of  this  business  men's 

199 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

association,  Mr.  S.,  who  had  been  elected  an  officer,  made 
an  address  in  which  he  dealt  quite  plainly  with  the  un- 
deniable fact  that  the  town  had  been  throttled  and  checked 
of  its  normal  development  by  the  railroad  monopoly.  The 
attitude  of  the  railroad  company  all  this  time,  I  should 
say,  was  of  sullen  observation  and  underhanded  antagonism. 
When  next  Mr.  S.  received  a  shipment  of  goods  he  was 
disconcerted  to  find  that  the  freight  rate  on  everything  had 
been  doubled.  By  telephone  he  called  up  the  railroad 
freight  office  with  the  information  that  there  had  been 
an  error  in  his  freight  bill  that  he  would  like  to  have 
corrected.  The  answer,  surlily  given,  was  that  there  was 
no  error.  In  some  alarm,  he  sought  the  higher  railroad 
authorities. 

"What  does  this  mean?"  he  demanded.  "Here  is  my 
last  freight  bill,  and  there  is  an  error  in  it,  and  I  can't 
get  it  corrected." 

"  There's  no  error  about  it,"  said  the  authorities.  "  That's 
the  correct  rate  for  you  now." 

"But  why  should  my  rate  be  doubled?" 

"  Your  old  rate  was  a  rate  we  make  to  our  friends.  For 
those  that  go  to  public  meetings  and  make  wild  speeches 
about  railroad  monopoly,  this  is  the  rate  we  make." 

"  What !  Am  I  to  understand  that  this  is  to  be  my  rate 
hereafter?  " 

"  As  long  as  you  feel  constrained  to  be  our  enemy  you 
can't  expect  us  to  be  your  friend." 

Mr.  S.  went  straight  from  this  interview  to  my  father,  to 
whom  he  related  what  had  passed  and  presented  his  resig- 
nation from  the  association.     He  said: 

"  I  shall  be  ruined  if  I  go  on.  I  am  with  the  people 
of  Davenport,  but  I  cannot  afford  to  be  ruined." 

So  he  dropped  out,  and  his  old  freight  rate  was  restored 

200 


The  Record  of  Regulation 

to  him.  Those  that  remember  conditions  in  the  old  days 
of  what  a  great  railroad  president  once  called  "  knock 
down  and  drag  out  "  can  recall,  doubtless,  scores  of  the  like 
incidents.  I  remember  that  my  father  once  had  his  coal 
supply  cut  off  by  the  railroad  company  for  demanding  in 
his  newspaper  that  the  company  guard  its  crossings,  and 
was  obliged  to  haul  his  coal  into  town  in  wagons;  and 
a  local  grain  shipper  that  made  some  indiscreet  re- 
marks about  the  repeal  of  the  Iowa  Granger  freight  rate 
law  (a  repeal  corruptly  obtained  by  the  railroad  com- 
panies) was  almost  bankrupted  because  he  could  not  ob- 
tain cars.  I  have  heard  men  say  that  Mr.  Frank  Norris's 
descriptions  of  railroad  conditions  in  "  The  Octopus  "  were 
exaggerated.  To  those  that  remember  the  situation  in 
Iowa  thirty  years  ago  they  seem  much  underdrawn.  I 
do  not  know  that  I  can  give  a  stronger  indication  of  our 
real  situation  than  to  say  that  we  thought  nothing  of 
the  incident  between  Mr.  S.  and  the  railroad  authorities. 
It  was  what  we  had  always  been  accustomed  to,  and 
with  our  American  patience,  a  patience  unattainable  by 
any  other  nation  on  earth,  we  endured  it  all,  and  seemed 
to  think  we  were  divinely  appointed  to  endure. 

This  was  in  the  old  days  before  there  had  been  any 
attempt  at  national  regulation  of  the  railroads;  then  it 
was  in  this  manner  that  the  railroads  dealt  with  recalci- 
trants. I  will  now  give  two  illustrations  of  the  New 
Style. 

Wayzata,  Minn.,  is  a  pretty  little  town  at  the  foot  of 
Lake  Minnetonka,  and  about  twelve  miles  from  Minneap- 
olis. It  is  traversed  along  its  front  by  Mr.  Hill's  Great 
Northern  Railroad.  A  few  years  ago  the  town  was  grow- 
ing fast  and  handsomely,  and  the  railroad,  operated  at 
grade  and  with  trains  passing  at  high  speed,  was  an  in- 

201 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

creasing  source  of  danger.  The  town  council  passed  an 
ordinance  regulating  the  speed  of  railroad  trains  within 
the  town  limits,  a  regulation  that  to  the  average  mind 
seemed  perfectly  reasonable,  and  assuredly  was  needed. 
The  railroad  company  resented  the  ordinance,  on  principle, 
I  suppose,  having  been  long  accustomed  to  do  as  it  pleased 
with  its  own  property.  It  closed  the  station  of  Wayzata 
and  compelled  the  people  to  go  a  mile  and  a  half  to  the 
next  station.  The  Wayzatans  were  true-blood  Americans; 
they  squirmed  a  little,  but,  of  course,  they  submitted;  suf- 
ferance is  the  badge  of  all  our  tribe.  The  situation  lasted 
three  or  four  years.  Then  Mr.  Ray  Stannard  Baker,  writ- 
ing in  1906  a  magazine  article  on  railroad  conditions,  told 
the  story  of  Wayzata,  and  the  station  was  restored.  I 
suppose  that  if  Mr.  Baker  had  not  taken  up  the  cause  of 
Wayzata  the  town  would  have  remained  stationless  until 
the  end  of  the  chapter.  Wayzata,  by  the  way,  is  not  the 
only  place  in  the  United  States  of  which  such  stories  can  be 
told;  and,  to  tell  the  truth,  it  got  off  easily;  if  Mr.  Hill  had 
decided  to  deprive  it  of  all  service  I  do  not  know  how 
he  could  have  been  prevented  from  so  doing. 

The  other  incident  has  a  sharper  and  more  subtle  sig- 
nificance. Mr.  Hill  never  cared  much  for  edge  tools;  his 
preference  is  always  for  the  open  field,  the  handy  war- 
club,  and  his  enemy  borne  away  in  fragments.  Other  rail- 
road managers  have  a  different  theory  of  warfare.  At 
No.  4  South  Clark  Street,  Chicago,  Mr.  Edward  G.  Davies 
is  a  general  consignee  with  a  large  business.  Mr.  Davies 
is  known  in  railroad  circles  as  a  "  fighter " ;  that  is  to 
say,  being  a  Welshman  he  has  not  the  sweet  American 
virtue  of  eternal  patience.  For  years  he  has  been  pro- 
testing against  railroad  extortion,  and  has  frequently  ap- 
peared as  a  witness  before  the  Inter-State  Commerce  Com- 

202 


The  Record  of  Regulation 

mission  relating  startling  things  about  conditions  as  they 
really  are,  and  not  as  they  are  painted  in  an  optimistic 
press.  It  was  to  a  certain  extent  Mr.  Davies's  testimony 
that  precipitated  the  excitement  about  the  refrigerator  car 
swindle,  and  he  is  the  author  of  powerful  pamphlets  and 
speeches  dealing  with  railroad  rates  and  the  like  matters. 
Strange  to  say,  being  in  business,  he  is  not  afraid  to  speak 
his  mind;  hence,  I  suppose,  his  troubles,  for  we  cannot 
have  lese  majeste  growing  up  among  us.  Mr.  Davies's 
reputation  among  railroad  managers  is  bad;  otherwise  it 
is  exceedingly  good.  He  receives  large  consignments  of 
fruit  and  vegetables  from  many  parts  of  the  country,  and 
on  these  he  must  pay  the  freight.  It  is  very  odd,  but  his 
bills  for  this  freight  are  almost  always  wrong,  and  when 
they  are  wrong  the  error  is  generally  against  him.  If 
he  receives  10,000  pounds  of  tomatoes  he  may  be  charged 
freight  on  12,000  or  16,000  pounds.  When  he  complains 
he  is  met  first  with  the  suave  assurance  of  a  thorough 
investigation.  He  waits  on  this.  Hearing  nothing,  he 
makes  renewed  demand.  Then  he  is  pleasantly  assured  that 
he  is  quite  in  error  and  the  bill  is  correct.  No  disagree- 
able word  is  said  to  him;  there  is  no  bickering  on  the 
part  of  the  railroad  company,  no  threats,  no  violence  of 
speech;  but,  as  a  rule,  he  is  obliged  to  go  into  court  to 
get  that  error  corrected,  and  two  or  three  years  may  elapse 
before  he  can  recover.  The  result  is  that  he  is  incessantly 
in  litigation,  and  has  been  since  he  began  to  attack  the 
railroads.  Long  ago  the  railroads  "cut  off  his  credit"; 
that  is  to  say,  they  compelled  him  (although  a  man  of 
substantial  means  and  high  standing)  to  pay  cash  for  his 
freight  before  it  is  delivered,  so  that  for  every  overcharge 
he  must  sue. 

Overcharges   on   his   way-bills   seem   only   a   part   of   a 

203 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

subtle  but  relentless  persecution.  He  is  continually  in- 
volved in  trouble  about  switching  charges  and  delayed  de- 
livery of  his  goods,  so  that  he  has  now  from  all  these  causes 
claims  in  dispute  amounting  to  more  than  $12,000.  To  all 
his  protests  the  same  front  of  coldly  polite  denial  is  main- 
tained. Railroad  officers  have  assured  him  that  no  dis- 
crimination is  practiced  against  him;  they  will  give  the 
like  assurance  to  anyone  that  asks  them  concerning  the 
Davies  case;  and  yet  the  man  has  lost  annually  thousands 
of  dollars  through  a  systematic  persecution  from  which 
all  his  competitors  are  free,  except  those  that  have  joined 
him  in  protesting  against  rate  extortion.  From  these,  also, 
apt  illustrations  might  be  cited. 

One  may  say,  then,  with  perfect  assurance,  that  the 
railroads  have  changed  their  methods  under  the  new  dis- 
pensation and  the  triumphant  advance  of  regulative  re- 
form ;  also  they  have  changed  their  weapons,  for  they 
have  substituted  the  stiletto  for  the  ax.  Yet  I  submit 
that  as  between  brutal  frankness  that  tells  a  merchant 
he  is  being  punished  and  suave  dissimulation  that  punishes 
under  cover  there  is  essentially  little  choice.  And  I  sub- 
mit further  that  the  power  to  punish  in  this  way  is  too 
vast  and  perilous  a  power  to  be  lodged  in  the  irresponsible 
hands  of  the  gentlemen  that  conduct  the  railroad  system 
of  the  United  States  for  the  sole  purpose  of  extracting 
from  it  support  for  their  watered  stocks  and  fictitious 
bonds. 


204- 


CHAPTER  XI 

dr.   Sherman's   celebrated  specific 

The  existence  of  the  evils  we  have  mentioned  here  is 
freely  admitted  by  all  persons  not  profitably  interested 
in  concealing  them;  but  for  some  reason  not  quite  clear, 
we  have  determined  upon  further  experiment  with  regu- 
lative remedies  instead  of  removing  the  cause  of  our  dis- 
ease. No  doubt  this  general  and  persistent  faith  in  the 
dosing  of  symptoms  as  the  true  arcanum  of  economic  prac- 
tice has  its  best  expression  in  what  are  called  the  policies 
of  Mr.  Roosevelt,  and  offers  a  sufficient  explanation  of  his 
popularity.  And  since  we  resolutely  reject  the  experience 
of  other  nations  in  these  matters,  heeding  only  our  own, 
and  preferring  to  walk  our  way  whither  it  leads,  we  may 
find  instruction  from  the  history  of  the  grandest  of  all 
our  efforts  with  the  regulative  quacksalver. 

Agitation  against  the  growing  power  and  menace  of  the 
great  corporations  was  active  as  far  back  as  1884.  A 
few  years  later  it  had  taken  shape  in  a  movement  against 
the  trusts,  as  the  greatest  and  most  dangerous  of  the  cor- 
porations had  begun  to  be  called.  Many  measures  seeking 
to  put  an  end  to  the  trust  monster  were  introduced  in 
and  rejected  by  Congress.  Some  were  held  to  be  clearly 
unconstitutional  (for  the  constitution  is  carefully  drawn 
to  be  a  bulwark  of  property),  and  some  were  laughed  to 
scorn  by  the  trust  opponents  as  merely  puerile  or  comic. 
In   1890  Senator  John  Sherman  devised  a  law  that  was 

205 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

believed  to  obviate  all  objections,  and  was  much  praised  by 
persons  sincerely  convinced  of  the  terrible  nature  of 
the  trust.  The  new  act  was  brief,  inclusive,  and  as  clear 
as  any  such  measure  could  be  made.  It  defined  as  a  crime 
new  to  the  legal  world  "  any  combination  in  restraint  of 
trade,"  and  provided  severe  punishments  for  persons  that 
engaged  in  such  combinations. 

Of  this  the  essence  was  a  concession  to  the  old  familiar 
and  well-rooted  American  doctrine  of  economics  that  held 
competition  to  be  not  only  the  life  of  trade  but  the  cure 
for  every  evil  existing  anywhere  in  trade  conditions.  The 
extent  of  the  belief  in  this  doctrine  was  truly  remarkable. 
For  many  years  it  was  taught  as  basic  faith  in  the  class- 
rooms of  the  college  professors  of  political  economy,  it 
was  accepted  as  unquestionable  truth  by  most  writers  on 
economic  subjects,  and  seems  never  to  have  been  doubted 
by  the  public  at  large.  Wherever  in  the  United  States  a 
railroad  was  oppressing  or  overcharging  any  community 
the  remedy  that  the  community  instinctively  turned  to  was 
competition,  and  a  second  railroad  was  built  into  that  com- 
munity in  order  to  provide  the  needed  competition  with 
the  first.  Long  after  it  had  been  demonstrated  that  in 
every  such  case  the  second  road  either  joined  hands  with 
the  first  and  continued  the  spoliation,  as  shown  in  the 
preceding  chapter,  or  was  purchased  by  and  became  a  part 
of  the  first,  people  clung  with  a  pathetic  fidelity  to  the  com- 
petitive theory  as  if  it  were  of  their  religion ;  and  I  can 
recall  now  other  Western  cities  than  Davenport  in  which 
the  citizens  expended  their  own  money,  time,  and  effort 
in  providing  not  merely  a  second,  but  when  that  had  been 
absorbed,  a  third,  and  a  fourth  railroad,  only  to  find  each 
in  turn  absorbed  into  some  system  then  engaged  in  charging 
what  the  traffic  would  bear. 

206 


Dr.  Sherman's  Celebrated  Specific 

Similar  views  were  universally  entertained  in  regard  to 
commercial  matters.  Was  there  complaint  that  the  Stan- 
dard Oil  Company  was  establishing  a  monopoly  of  the 
oil  trade  and  increasing  unfairly  the  price  of  oil?  The 
remedy  was  to  start  or  to  support  a  rival  company  that  there 
might  be  competition,  and  lower  prices,  or  better  treatment 
might  result.  In  pursuit  of  this  idea  many  of  the  oil 
companies  that  had  refused  to  sell  out  to  the  Standard 
carried  on  for  varying  periods  bitter  and  expensive  war 
against  their  more  powerful  rival;  war  not  always  un- 
accompanied by  violence  and  even  bloodshed.  The  story 
of  Mr.  Daniel  Rice,  of  Marietta,  Ohio,  who  spent  the 
greater  part  of  his  life  and  all  of  his  money  in  an  heroic 
but  in  the  end  a  futile  effort  to  maintain  the  oil  refinery 
that  he  had  built  and  owned,  is  one  of  the  most  stirring 
chapters  in  commercial  history,  and  reveals  a  courage  on 
Mr.  Rice's  part  at  least  equal  to  any  ever  displayed  on 
the  battlefield,  and  a  persistence  that  will  command  ad- 
miration as  long  as  the  story  survives.  Wherever  Mr. 
Rice's  struggle  was  known  it  was  applauded  by  the  people. 
Men  felt  that  he  was  upholding  the  eternal  principle  of 
competition  and  the  right  of  a  man  to  possess  his  own. 
Similarly  the  story  of  the  operations  in  the  South  of  Chess, 
Carley  &  Co.  (the  alias  under  which  Mr.  Rockefeller's  con- 
cern operated  in  that  region),  was  generally  circulated  and 
aroused  indignation  wherever  it  was  known.  The  feeling 
had  grown  up  that  such  powerful  combinations  as  the 
Standard  Oil  Company  and  the  Sugar  Trust  threatened 
to  overturn  the  foundation  stones  of  the  American  govern- 
ment. The  passage  of  the  Sherman  Act  was,  therefore, 
regarded  with  satisfaction,  and  there  was  some  genuine 
expectation  on  the  part  of  the  public  that  the  problem 
would  now  be  found  to  be  solved,  and  the  trust  monster 

207 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

would  be  exterminated.  The  law  was  passed  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  General  Harrison,  but  up  to  the  close  of 
his  term  only  a  few  desultory  efforts  had  been  made  to 
enforce  it.  The  Presidential  campaign  of  1892  turned 
(in  the  West,  at  least),  to  some  extent  on  the  trust  issue, 
and  when  Mr.  Cleveland  took  office  he  was  warmly  urged 
by  many  Democrats  to  begin  at  once  a  vigorous  campaign 
against  the  trusts.  The  New  York  World,  in  particular, 
a  paper  that  had  most  ably  supported  Mr.  Cleveland  in 
the  campaign,  presented  to  him  day  by  day  for  months 
the  lawless  and  truly  startling  record  of  one  trust  after 
another  and  insisted  that  these  combinations,  each  of  which 
was  most  indubitably  a  violator  of  the  law,  should  be 
brought  to  book.  Not  only  had  the  trusts  been  organized 
in  almost  every  line  of  business,  said  the  World,  but  a 
large  number  of  them  had  been  organized  since  the  pass- 
ing of  the  Sherman  Act.  Therefore,  they  were  in  such 
direct  and  flagrant  defiance  of  the  law  as  to  make  some 
action  against  them  necessary  to  punish  them  as  combina- 
tions in  restraint  of  trade,  and  not  less  to  uphold  the 
dignity  and  sanctity  of  all  law. 

In  spite  of  these  astounding  revelations  and  this  un- 
answerable argument,  Mr.  Cleveland's  Attorney-General, 
Mr.  Olney,  declined  to  make  any  effort  to  enforce  the  law, 
holding  it  to  be  probably  unconstitutional,  and,  in  any 
event,  impossible  to  enforce.  This  continued  to  be  the 
general  policy  of  the  Cleveland  administration.  Mr.  Cleve- 
land was  succeeded  by  Mr.  McKinley,  whose  Attorney- 
General  made  no  effort  to  secure  a  conviction  under  the 
Sherman  Law  (which  thus  in  effect  remained  a  dead  letter), 
until  the  forming  of  the  Northern  Securities  Company  of 
New  York.  This  was  a  holding  company  by  which  Mr.  James 
J.  Hill  sought  to  facilitate  his  amalgamation  of  the  Great 

208 


Dr.  Sherman's  Celebrated  Specific 

Northern  and  Northern  Pacific  railroads,  an  amalgamation, 
by  the  way,  quite  illegal  under  the  laws  of  some  of  the 
states  affected.  Attorney-General  Knox  undertook  to  bring 
an  action  under  the  Sherman  law  against  the  Northern 
Securities  Company.  It  is  to  be  noted,  in  respect  to  this 
action,  first,  that  the  Northern  Securities  Company  was 
not  a  trust,  but  a  mere  financial  device.  Second,  that 
while  the  law  had  been  allowed  to  remain  inert  upon  the 
statute  books,  the  number,  power,  arrogance,  and  extor- 
tions of  the  industrial  trusts  had  enormously  increased. 
Only  a  short  time  before  there  had  been  formed  the  United 
States  Steel  Corporation,  one  of  the  greatest  trusts  ever 
organized,  one  of  the  most  oppressive,  and  certainly  one 
that  most  clearly  violated  the  law.  Against  this  gigantic 
combination  in  restraint  of  trade  no  Attorney-General  had 
ever  lifted  a  hand.  Third,  Mr.  Hill  represented  one  of 
the  powerful  railroad  combinations  in  the  country,  and  was 
at  the  time  being  fiercely  assailed  by  other  great  railroad 
interests  so  that  a  governmental  attack  upon  him  was  a 
substantial  assistance  to  such  hostile  interests.  And  fourth, 
these  interests,  thus  benefited,  had  been  liberal  contributors 
to  political  campaign  funds.  These  are  facts  usually  over- 
looked in  considering  this  famous  case,  but  they  may  seem 
pertinent. 

The  prosecution  of  the  Northern  Securities  Company  was 
pushed  in  the  Federal  Courts;  it  was  carried  to  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court,  and  by  that  body  the  decision  was 
rendered  that  the  Northern  Securities  Company  was  a 
combination  in  restraint  of  trade,  and  that  the  Sherman 
law  was  a  perfectly  constitutional  and  feasible  prohi- 
bition of  such  combinations.  This  settled  definitely  all 
question  as  to  the  constitutionality  of  the  Sherman  Act, 
and   many   persons   now   expected   that   after   a   lapse   of 

209 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

thirteen  years  the  law  would  be  applied  against  the  great 
corporations  that  had  so  openly  defied  it. 

There  has  been  no  such  application.  The  trusts  have 
gone  on  daily  increasing  in  power  and  wealth.  The  process 
that  they  began  of  exterminating  the  small  dealer  has  been 
carried  to  a  point  where  the  practical  passing  of  manu- 
facturing and  wholesale  and  even  retail  trade  into  the 
hands  of  a  few  great  combinations  is  clearly  foreshadowed 
and  on  the  way.  And  yet,  against  these  combinations 
the  law  designed  to  prevent  them  and  upheld  by  the  Su- 
preme Court  as  a  constitutional  and  valid  preventive  is 
as  if  it  had  never  been  written. 

Yet  I  should  err  unpardonably  if  I  should  seem  to  imply 
that  the  law,  thus  upheld  by  the  highest  authority,  become 
a  part  of  the  organic  law  of  the  land,  as  much  and  as 
sacred  a  part  of  our  legal  foundation  as  any  other  law, 
was  at  all  times  treated  with  open  scorn  by  the  officers 
appointed  and  sworn  to  uphold  it.  Occasionally  a  news- 
paper would  break  forth  into  clamor  against  some  par- 
ticularly offensive  illegality  by  the  Tobacco  Trust,  the 
Sugar  Trust,  the  Leather  Trust,  the  Flour  Trust,  the  Beef 
Trust,  the  Oil  Trust,  the  Woolen  Trust,  the  Rubber  Trust, 
the  Asphalt  Trust,  the  Shoe  Machinery  Trust,  the  Elevator 
Trust,  or  some  other  flourishing  and  lawless  combination 
in  restraint  of  trade,  and  there  would  follow  valorous 
declarations  by  some  public  servant,  and  the  form  of  a 
proceeding  would  flare  up,  languish,  and  slowly  disappear 
from  view.  One  of  these  performances  belonged  so  surely 
to  the  comic  history  of  the  law  that  I  feel  moved  to  relate 
it  here  at  length  for  the  refreshing  of  my  readers  and 
the  lightening  of  these  pages. 

The  Beef  Trust  was  very  cleverly  organized  by  a  master 
mind   in  legal  evasion.      Unlike  the  Oil  Trust,  the   Sugar 

210 


Dr.  Sherman's  Celebrated  Specific 

Trust,  and  many  other  trusts,  it  had  no  central  governing 
body  that  one  could  lay  a  finger  on.  Three  firms  had 
gradually  absorbed  into  themselves  most  of  the  larger  pack- 
ing houses  at  Chicago.  A  small  group  was  left  at  one 
side.  This  was  now  organized  into  the  National  Packing 
Company,  the  stock  of  which  was  held  equally  by  the  three 
great  firms.  This,  of  course,  put  an  end  to  all  competition, 
for  a  firm  will  not  compete  with  a  company  in  which  it 
has  invested  millions  and  of  which  it  owns  one-third  of 
the  stock.  Thus  the  National  Packing  Company  became 
the  clearing  house  for  the  trust,  and  yet,  to  all  superficial 
observation  was  a  separate  institution.  By  means  of  this 
ingenious  device  it  was  always  possible  to  assert  that  there 
was  no  Beef  Trust,  and  to  deceive  some  persons  into 
accepting  the  statement;  and  even  to  this  day  you  will 
find  it  imposing  upon  those  that  ought  to  know  better. 

But  the  difficulty  of  getting  proof  of  the  "  combination 
in  restraint  of  trade  "  was  only  apparent,  not  real,  and 
seems  to  have  been  provided  for  the  benefit  of  Federal 
district  attorneys  that  desired  to  avoid  their  duty.  A  Chi- 
cago newspaper  collected  a  great  mass  of  irrefutable  evi- 
dence showing  that  the  three  great  firms,  the  National 
Packing  Company  and  two  other  firms  allied  with  these, 
were  acting  in  perfect  concert  to  depress  the  price  of 
cattle  and  to  increase  the  prices  of  meat.  Letters,  tele- 
grams, and  extracts  from  records  revealed  the  exact  method 
of  operating  the  huge  machine,  which  at  both  ends  was 
clearly  a  combination  in  restraint  of  trade  and  therefore 
a  lawbreaker.  This  evidence  was  placed  in  the  hands  of 
the  United  States  District  Attorney  at  Chicago,  and  the 
demand  was  made  that  the  law  be  enforced  and  the  per- 
sons implicated  in  the  evidence  be  brought  to  trial. 

The   District  Attorney   brought   this   evidence   into   the 

211 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

United  States  Court  and  asked  for  an  injunction  restrain- 
ing the  firms  involved  from  continuing  to  violate  the  law. 

In  April,  1903,  the  Court,  having  heard  the  evidence, 
decided  that  these  firms  had  been  guilty  of  violating  the 
law  and  issued  an  injunction  commanding  them  to  refrain 
from  violating  the  law  thereafter. 

The  firms  contested  the  validity  of  this  injunction  and 
took  an  appeal.  Meantime,  they  continued  to  violate  the 
law  exactly  as  before.  After  two  years,  in  which  no  offi- 
cial hand  was  raised  in  any  way  against  the  lawbreaking, 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  handed  down  a 
decision  that  the  injunction  commanding  the  lawbreakers 
to  cease  from  violating  the  law  was  constitutional  and 
just. 

Whereupon  preparations  were  begun  (somewhat  delib- 
erately) in  Chicago  to  rear  upon  the  lawbreakers  the  awful 
front  of  justice.  Most  of  the  confidential  clerks,  book- 
keepers, and  managers  of  the  firms  involved  made  hurried 
exits  to  Europe.  These  tourists  comprised  all  persons 
whose  presence  on  the  witness-stand  would  be  particularly 
undesirable  for  the  trust.  About  two  months  later  in- 
dictments were  found.  When  the  cases  were  called  the 
judge  ruled  that  as  the  evidence  presented  against  the  in- 
dicted persons  was  in  great  part  evidence  that  they  them- 
selves had  furnished  to  the  government  under  the  promise 
of  immunity  it  was  inadmissible,  and  he  dismissed  the 
suits. 

Nearly  four  years  have  since  elapsed,  and  the  Beef 
Trust  continues  to  operate  exactly  as  before.  When  it 
forces  down  too  far  the  buying  price  of  cattle  a  loud  wail 
arises  from  the  stock  growers ;  when  it  advances  too  rapidly 
the  price  of  meat  a  loud  wail  arises  from  the  consumers. 
At  other  times  producers  and  consumers — between  whom 

212 


Dr.  Shermans  Celebrated  Specific 

the  Trust  stands  "  a  combination  in  restraint  of  trade  " 
pleasantly  taking  toll  with  both  hands — endure  with  a 
beautiful  resignation  the  exactions  that  the  approved  law 
of  the  land  has  been  impotent  to  prevent.  Persons  that 
do  not  believe  in  law  are  usually  called  anarchists;  a 
country  wherein  law  is  inert  is  called  an  anarchical  coun- 
try; one  law  must  necessarily  be  the  same  as  another;  if 
we  allow  one  to  be  trampled  upon,  all  suffer  impairment. 
The  gentlemen  of  the  Beef  Trust,  who  are  all  very  respect- 
able citizens,  would  bitterly  resent  the  appellation  of  an- 
archists; the  official  gentlemen  that  are  hired  to  enforce 
the  law  and  do  not  enforce  it  would  be  much  hurt  if  they 
were  called  the  abettors  of  anarchy.  But  for  one,  I  con- 
fess I  should  be  relieved  and  gratified  to  be  informed  on 
these  and  cognate  points.  How  can  a  government  deter- 
mine to  enforce  one  law  on  the  statute  books  and  decline 
to  enforce  another?  How  can  one  law  be  any  less  the 
law  than  another  law?  And  if  we  have  a  law  that  in 
nearly  twenty  years  has  been  thus  the  subject  of  humiliat- 
ing farce  and  jest,  and  if  it  is  a  law  that  in  the  nature 
of  things  is  absurd,  futile,  imbecile,  and  impossible,  why 
not  have  enough  courage  to  admit  the  truth  and  clear  the 
statute  books  of  such  degrading  rubbish? 

Yet,  it  is  to  be  admitted,  before  we  cease  to  consider 
Dr.  Sherman's  celebrated  specific,  that  it  has  not  invariably 
been  a  failure.  Once  or  twice  it  has  been  enforced  with 
undeniable  success.  Under  this  law  the  case  was  instituted 
that  resulted  in  the  famous  decision  against  the  Danbury 
Hatters  that  trades  unions  could  be  held  financially  respon- 
sible for  the  damage  done  by  a  strike.  This  may  seem 
significant  enough  of  itself,  but  there  is  another  instance 
of  the  law's  enforcement  even  better  as  an  example  though 
it  is  not  nearly  so  well  known.     In  1908  a  steamship  was 

213 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

taking  on  cargo  in  a  Southern  seaport.  The  sailors  were 
members  of  the  Sailors'  Union,  which  had  a  contract  with 
the  owners  of  the  steamship.  The  charge  was  made  that 
the  owners  had  violated  this  contract.  A  strike  followed. 
The  Longshoremen's  Union,  members  of  which  had  been 
engaged  in  loading  the  vessel,  notified  the  owner  that  in 
the  judgment  of  the  Union  the  cause  of  the  sailors  was 
just,  and  unless  the  dispute  were  adjusted  the  Longshore- 
men would  join  the  strike.  Meantime,  the  loading  of  the 
vessel  went  on  without  interruption.  The  owners  and  the 
sailors  quickly  came  to  an  agreement;  the  vessel  was  loaded 
and  proceeded  to  sea.  Four  hours  after  she  had  sailed 
seventy-five  members  of  the  Longshoremen's  Union  were 
arrested  under  the  Sherman  Act,  charged  with  a  combina- 
tion in  restraint  of  trade. 

Evidently,  therefore,  we  should  go  much  too  far  if  we 
said  the  Sherman  Act  was  a  dead  letter  or  was  not  en- 
forced. It  was  designed  solely  to  apply  to  trusts.  It 
has  never  been  enforced  against  a  trust.  It  was  not  de- 
signed to  apply  to  Labor  Unions.  It  has  been  enforced 
against  Labor  Unions.  While  this  by  no  possibility  could 
come  within  the  intention  or  thought  of  its  framers  or 
enactors,  enforcement  is  still  enforcement.  Far  be  it  from 
me  to  comment  upon  these  facts.  Comment  would  be  im- 
proper and  might  not  be  safe.  We  have  the  highest  pos- 
sible authority  for  the  assertion  that  in  this  country  there 
is  one  law  for  the  rich  man  and  for  the  poor.  The 
history  of  the  application  of  the  Sherman  Act  to  the 
rich  trust  and  to  the  poor  labor  union  must  be  in  some 
way  an  illustration  of  this  glorious  truth.  Exactly  how 
it  is  an  illustration  I  cannot  quite  see,  but  doubtless  this 
is  clear  enough  to  my  friends  of  the  optimistic  philosophy, 
and  they  will  be  glad  to  make  it  clear  to  me. 

214 


Dr.  Sherman's  Celebrated  Specific 

Meanwhile,  if  the  law  has  never  reached  the  trusts, 
against  which  alone  it  was  framed,  and  has  punished  the 
Labor  Unions,  against  which  it  was  never  designed,  one  may 
not  deny  that  the  grand  old  American  principle  of  free 
competition  (which  was  the  mainspring  of  the  law)  has 
been  receiving  many  heavy  blows  from  evolution  and  ex- 
perience. Indeed,  it  appears  now  that  some  of  its  old- 
time  champions  have  been  driven  to  a  doubt  whether, 
in  the  existing  conditions  we  are  yet  to  speak  of,  competi- 
tion is  so  much  a  blessing  as  a  bane.  I  will  give  of  these 
experiences  some  examples  that  passed  before  my  own 
observation. 

In  this  Middle  West,  where  I  was  born,  two  of  the 
railroads  that  for  years  had  amiably  shared  in  the  plunder 
of  the  public,  fell  out  for  some  reason  that  I  forget;  I 
think  it  was  about  the  freight  rate  on  bran  from  Missouri 
river  points,  one  road  wanting  more  than  the  other  would 
concede.  Anyway,  these  two  railroads,  the  Chicago,  Rock 
Island  &  Pacific,  and  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul, 
fell  from  co-partnership  to  quarreling,  and  then  to  cutting 
rates.  Here,  then,  was  grand  old  competition  in  its  plain- 
est terms.  Every  day  one  road  or  the  other  would  announce 
a  fresh  cut  in  the  tariff,  until  the  passenger  rate  from 
Mississippi  river  towns  to  Chicago  had  dwindled  from 
$5  to  50  cents.  The  countryside  rejoiced  at  this  windfall, 
and  such  swarms  of  people  poured  towards  Chicago  that 
the  railroads  could  not  provide  cars  for  them.  The  stock- 
holders wailed  aloud,  but  presently  all  their  complaints 
were  drowned  in  an  outcry  far  more  bitter  and  insistent. 
The  merchants  of  the  region  beheld  ruin  before  them,  for 
their  customers  were  going  to  Chicago  to  buy  goods.  Not 
only  that,  but  there  was  yet  a  sharper  grievance  in  store 
for  the  local  tradesmen.     Their  prices  were  all  arranged 

215 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

and  their  profits  calculated  on  the  basis  of  the  freight  rates 
in  force  before  competition  began.  Now,  the  freight  rates 
were  less  than  half  as  much,  and  rivals  were  starting  up, 
profiting  by  the  new  rates,  and  selling  goods  at  correspond- 
ingly reduced  figures.  This  exhibited  competition  in  a  new 
light.  Many  of  these  same  merchants  that  now  complained 
so  bitterly  against  it,  had  spent  part  of  their  lives  in  active 
labors  to  secure  it.  Whenever  they  had  complained  of 
the  extortions  of  one  railroad  they  had  thought  longingly 
of  the  beatific  state  they  would  be  in  if  only  there  were 
competition  in  the  carrying  trade;  many  of  them  had,  in 
fact,  subscribed  liberally  for  stock  in  new  railroad  projects. 
And  now  they  discovered  that  competition  did  not  mean 
relief  from  railroad  extortion,  but  only  such  an  unsettling  of 
basic  conditions  that  business  was  practically  impossible. 

Thousands  of  merchants  over  all  the  Northwest  came 
simultaneously  (and  swiftly)  to  the  same  conclusion  about 
this,  and  they  uttered  protests  so  fierce,  loud,  and  deter- 
mined that  the  railroad  warriors  were  forced  to  make  terms, 
and  the  old  rates  were  restored. 

The  next  year  the  whole  nation  had  a  memorable  lesson 
to  the  same  effect.  For  a  generation  the  New  York  Cen- 
tral &  Hudson  River  Railroad  had  enjoyed  the  best  of 
the  carrying  trade  between  New  York  and  Buffalo,  and 
a  great  advantage  in  the  entire  traffic  between  New  York 
and  the  great  West.  What  we  had  been  taught  to  believe 
were  the  inevitable  laws  of  economics  now  began  to  work. 
The  New  York  Central,  as  previously  related  in  these 
pages,  had  taken  advantage  of  its  position  to  issue  great 
masses  of  watered  securities,  and  to  cut  many  "  melons  " 
among  its  fortunate  owners,  who  were  principally  members 
of  the  Vanderbilt  family.  This  is  that  process  in  the 
poster  phrase  of  Wall  Street  called  "  capitalizing  the  earn- 

216 


Dr.  Sherman's  Celebrated  Specific 

ings."  As  usual  the  procedure  had  necessitated  various 
extortions  and  frauds  upon  the  public,  and  the  excessive 
profits  to  the  fortunate  melon  cutters  had  attracted  much 
attention  from  other  Capital.  Hence,  competition  was 
evolved,  and  a  company  was  formed  that  constructed  the 
New  York,  West  Shore  &  Buffalo  Railroad,  from  Wee- 
hawken  (opposite  New  York  City),  paralleling  the  New 
York  Central  most  of  the  way  and  ending  at  Buffalo. 

This  railroad  was  completed  in  1883,  whereupon  competi- 
tion swooped  down  on  its  wings  of  healing.  Rates  were 
cut  on  all  branches  of  traffic,  until  passengers  were  carried 
between  New  York  and  Chicago  for  $7.50. 

Then  this  rivalry,  which  had  upset  business  east  and 
west,  had  its  natural  result.  A  panic  began.  Grant  & 
Ward  failed  with  a  resounding  crash,  an  era  of  acute  busi- 
ness depression  set  in,  the  bankruptcy  totals  reached  alarm- 
ing figures,  and  thousands  of  firms  in  remote  regions  that 
cared  nothing  about  the  fight  between  the  Central  and 
the  West  Shore  went  to  disaster.  There  was  a  universal 
demand  that  competition  be  stopped.  Mr.  Morgan  stepped 
into  the  breach,  arranged  the  terms  of  compromise,  brought 
the  warring  forces  together,  and  the  New  York  Central 
was  loaded  for  999  years  with  an  unprofitable  enterprise, 
on  which  the  public  must  continue  to  pay  the  tribute  of 
maintenance  and  interest  charges.  For  years  there  had 
been  no  greater  business  calamity  than  the  installing  of 
competition  with  the  New  York  Central.  The  effects  of 
it  are  still  felt;  they  will  continue  to  be  felt  as  long  as 
the  West  Shore  securities  exist  for  the  public  to  pay. 

Such  episodes  (on  a  great  or  small  scale)  happening 
many  times  in  many  parts  of  the  country,  and  enforced 
by  the  complaints  of  Wall  Street  and  of  the  stockholders, 
drove  the  railroad  managers  into  the  so-called  "  gentlemen's 

217 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

agreements,"  the  first  of  which,  by  the  way,  was  in- 
augurated by  Mr.  Morgan.  Their  object  was  to  prevent 
all  rate  wars  everywhere.  At  first  these  treaties  were 
received  by  the  general  public  with  much  scornful  amuse- 
ment. Later,  it  was  discovered  that  they  were  not  merely 
beneficent  to  the  stockholders  of  the  railroads,  but  of  vital 
importance  to  the  country.  Whenever  one  of  these  agree- 
ments was  broken  and  a  rate  war  instituted,  hostilities  had 
not  proceeded  long  before  all  the  merchants  and  tradesmen 
in  the  region  affected  were  furiously  protesting,  and  thus 
the  "  gentlemen's  agreement "  came  to  be  regarded  as  an  in- 
dispensable feature  in  successful  railroad  management. 
Yet,  of  course,  it  was  a  broad  denial  of  the  whole  principle 
of  free  competition,  and  the  thought  slowly  began  to  intrude 
upon  reflective  men  that  if  competition  was  a  deadly  evil 
in  transportation  it  could  hardly  be  a  perfect  blessing  in 
production. 

To  fit  these  experiences  into  their  proper  place  in  the 
history  of  industrial  evolution,  we  should  go  back  to  a  con- 
dition, only  seven  hundred  years  ago  in  Europe,  when 
every  man  that  was  in  business  was  in  business  alone,  and 
every  man  that  made  anything,  made  it  alone  and  with  his 
own  tools.  The  first  business  co-partnership  was  formed 
in  Florence  about  the  thirteenth  century.  There  were 
two  men  in  the  same  street  that  were  bankers  and  money- 
lenders. Naturally,  they  were  rivals;  the  grand  old 
principle  of  competition  had  its  full  operation  between 
them.  But  it  was  also  true  that  they  maintained  between 
them  two  places  of  business,  and  two  assistants,  whereas 
the  total  transactions  justified  but  one  place  of  business 
and  no  assistants;  and  it  was  also  true  that  because  of 
these  facts,  and  because  of  the  rivalry  in  loan  rates  and 
so  on,  neither  prospered. 

218 


Dr.  Sherman's  Celebrated  Specific 

Now,  there  is  a  force  in  the  world  much  stronger  than 
law,  governments,  potentates,  newspapers,  statesmen,  col- 
lege professors,  or  pamphleteers.  It  is  the  force  of  econ- 
omy, and  it  irresistibly  drew  together  the  two  money- 
lenders of  Florence.  Day  after  day  there  stared  them 
in  the  face  the  plain  facts  about  the  two  places  of  busi- 
ness, the  two  assistants,  the  rivalry  in  lending  rates.  When 
this  object  lesson  had  penetrated  deeply  enough  they  did 
the  natural  thing;  they  united  their  establishments  and 
had  one  place  of  business,  no  assistant,  and  no  rivalry  in 
lending  rates. 

Then  the  intellectual  progenitors  of  the  gentlemen  that 
favored  Dr.  Sherman's  remedy  came  around  in  a  fright 
and  withdrew  their  money.  Here  was  the  first  "  com- 
bination in  restraint  of  trade,"  and  as  it  was  new  and 
therefore  obviously  wrong  and  immoral,  I  have  no  doubt 
they  thought  the  government  should  suppress  it. 

But  this  same  force  of  evolution,  this  irresistible  tendency 
towards  economy  of  effort  and  expense,  spread  the  co- 
partnership idea  in  spite  of  all  alarms  and  forebodings, 
and  a  few  generations  saw  them  common  in  many  trades. 
It  was  the  beginning  of  centralization  and  of  the  growth 
of  efficiency.  Then  there  began  to  be  more  than  one 
partner.  Then  there  were  great  "  houses  "  or  firms,  in 
which  the  membership  descended  from  father  to  son;  great 
banking  houses  in  England  and  on  the  continent,  great  fac- 
toring houses  at  Bruges.  Then  "  companies  "  were  estab- 
lished in  Holland  and  England,  the  great  East  Indian 
Company  becoming  in  effect  the  government  of  a  vast 
nation.  A  craze  for  the  forming  of  such  companies  ended 
in  the  South  Sea  bubble  in  England,  and  again  in  the 
Mississippi  bubble  in  France;  yet  the  general  process  of 
development  went   on   for  two   reasons:   the  discovery   of 

219 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

new  worlds  and  new  ways,  and  the  development  of  new 
wants  by  mankind  demanded  more  capital  and  more  com- 
plex organization  than  the  firm,  the  co-partnership,  or  the 
individual  could  furnish;  and  there  was  the  same  irresistible 
force  at  work  in  the  fact  that  with  all  its  drawbacks  the 
company  was  a  more  economical  and  more  efficient  agency 
towards  the  things  that  mankind  must  have. 

Or  to  sum  up  these  changes  in  another  way,  men  were 
beginning  to  learn  the  advantages  and  economies  of  united 
effort. 

Later  there  began  an  even  greater  revolution  in  pro- 
ductive industry.  In  the  days  of  the  individual  tradesman, 
manufacturing  was  likewise  carried  on  by  individual  arti- 
sans. Every  shoemaker  had  his  own  shop,  owned  his  own 
tools,  and  made  the  complete  shoe  with  his  own  work  and 
that  of  his  apprentice.  Even  the  cloth  weavers  had  each 
his  own  loom,  and  the  armorers  had  each  his  own  forge. 
But  the  invention  of  the  steam  engine  and  of  multiplex 
machinery  to  be  operated  by  steam,  changed  all  this.  A 
cloth  weaver  did  not  have  the  capital  required  to  buy, 
set  up,  and  operate  a  steam  engine  and  a  power  loom; 
a  shoemaker  did  not  have  the  capital  to  set  up  shoemaking 
machinery.  The  complete  artisan  in  any  trade  largely 
disappeared;  the  men  that  made  things  no  longer  owned 
their  tools ;  and  the  "  company "  organization  that  had 
already  been  developed  for  trading  and  exploring  purposes 
became  naturally  the  easy  means  of  providing  the  capital 
and  owning  the  tools  for  production. 

Year  after  year  the  results  of  these  innovations  were 
to  make  the  artisan  more  and  more  a  part  of  a  machine, 
and  to  disturb  the  distribution  of  the  results  of  industry, 
so  that  the  worker  got  less  than  his  share  and  capital 
got  more.     A   shoemaker  that  made   an   entire   shoe   had 

220 


Dr.  Shermans  Celebrated  Specific 

some  mental  pleasure,  and  might  take  some  pride  in  the 
work  of  his  skill  and  taste.  The  new  shoemaker,  standing 
all  day  before  a  machine  that  cut  out  heels  or  soles,  having 
never  the  slightest  change  of  labor,  with  no  chance  to 
exercise  skill  or  taste,  with  a  mechanical  and  drudging 
occupation,  was  subjected  to  influences  that  limited  his 
mental  development.  Confined  all  day  in  a  great,  noisy, 
and  dirty  factory,  badly  ventilated,  often  badly  lighted, 
usually  crowded  with  his  fellows,  breathing  air  contami- 
nated from  many  lungs,  he  was  likewise  subjected  to  in- 
fluences that  undermined  his  physical  force.  Added  to 
these,  and  enforcing  them,  was  the  fact  that  too  often  in  the 
unfair  distribution  of  the  results  of  the  enterprise  the  share 
he  received  was  too  little  to  provide  him  with  adequate  nour- 
ishment; the  quarters  in  which  he  was  compelled  to  live 
were  cramped,  dark,  gloomy,  ill-ventilated,  and  offered 
little  or  no  relief  from  the  poisonous  air  of  the  factory 
in  which  he  worked;  while  the  terms  of  his  employment 
kept  him  from  such  relaxation  as  would  tend  to  restore 
his  overdrained  nervous  force. 

The  first  result  of  the  new  system,  then,  was  to  produce 
a  race  of  men  and  women  inadequately  nourished,  pain- 
fully overwrought,  deficient  in  vitality,  and  with  lives  the 
normal  boundaries  of  which  were  toil  and  sleep. 

As  the  new  system  spread  and  developed  with  the  multi- 
plied wants  and  varied  ingenuity  of  man,  the  number  of 
persons  that  fell  under  its  blight  increased.  It  has  con- 
tinued to  increase;  it  will  continue  to  increase,  absolutely 
and  relatively,  so  long  as  the  system  endures.  At  the 
same  time  the  physical  condition  of  the  workers  thus  af- 
fected will  probably  continue  to  decline.  From  such  con- 
clusions there  seems  to  be  no  escape,  and  if  anyone  among 
the  fortunate  desires  to  see  with  his  own  eyes  what  these 

221 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

conditions  are  now,  and  to  gather  from  his  own  senses  a 
just  conception  of  what  they  are  to  be  hereafter  in  the 
progress  of  this  system,  I  do  commend  to  him  a  tour 
through  certain  streets  and  regions  of  Fall  River,  Haver- 
hill, Lowell,  Lawrence,  Paterson,  Pittsburg,  Allegheny, 
Connellsville,  Harrisburg,  Deering  Station,  Homestead, 
Cleveland,  South  Chicago,  Joliet,  Moline,  Racine,  Fort 
Wayne,  Scranton,  South  Bend,  Belleville,  East  St.  Louis, 
and  other  cities  and  towns  I  might  mention.  I  am  inclined 
to  think  he  will  be  much  impressed  with  the  truth  of 
these  remarks;  in  any  event,  he  will,  if  he  be  of  the 
well-to-do  and  complacent  among  us,  see  sights  and  go 
among  people  the  like  of  which  he  had  never  believed  to 
exist. 

It  is  to  be  noted  carefully  here  that  competition,  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  has  been  condemned  in  transportation 
as  a  curse  and  a  great  injury,  is  the  sole  basis  upon  which 
these  conditions  are  maintained  and  defended.  The  cur- 
rent price  of  labor,  determined  by  competition,  is  the  ex- 
pression of  the  share  of  the  results  of  the  enterprise  al- 
lotted to  the  laborer.  From  the  continuance  of  competition 
in  this  regard  it  is  evident  that  Capital  (which  is  every- 
where the  possession  of  the  more  fortunate)  reaps  an 
advantage;  from  the  continuance  of  competition  in  trans- 
portation it  was  evident  that  Capital  reaped  a  disadvantage. 
Competition  has  been  largely  abolished  in  transportation, 
and  yet  is  fully  maintained  in  relation  to  the  price  of 
labor.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  present  system 
endows  Capital  with  undue  power,  as  well  as  undue  ad- 
vantages. 

We  come  next  to  the  manner  in  which  this  power  is 
secured  and  maintained,  which  is  at  the  same  time  the 
means  by  which  the  results  of  industry  are  so  unfairly 

222 


Dr.  Sherman's  Celebrated  Specific 

divided   that   steadily   the   wealth   of   the   world   is   being 
drawn  into  the  hands  of  a  few  men. 

The  great  pumps  and  efficient  machines  to  this  end  are 
the  issued  security,  whether  stock  certificate  or  bond,  and 
the  practice  of  issuing  these  on  the  reputed  value  and  pos- 
sible profits  of  the  enterprise.  In  the  case  of  bonds,  these 
become  actual,  and  in  the  case  of  stocks,  essential  liens  upon 
the  enterprise,  which  must  henceforth  make  enough  of  sur- 
plus to  meet  the  interest  and  dividends.  These  added 
interest  and  dividend  charges  can  be  provided  in  only 
two  ways,  by  increasing  the  price  of  the  product  or  by 
reducing  the  cost  of  its  making.  In  the  case  of  manu- 
facturing enterprise  the  reduced  cost  of  making  is  usually 
sought  for  through  reduced  wage  rates.  The  bonds  and 
stocks  are  therefore  efficient  devices  to  force  increased 
profits  from  the  enterprise  and  to  reduce  the  share  of  the 
product  that  the  worker  receives.  They  are  also  a  certain 
force  upon  the  community.  There  is  a  general,  if  tacit, 
recognition  of  their  right  to  earn  dividends  and  interest; 
something  almost  sacred  pertains  to  them  as  commercial, 
obligations;  and  an  enterprise  is  held  to  be  justified  in 
resorting  to  almost  any  expedient  to  secure  the  means  to 
pay  these  dividends  and  interest  charges,  no  matter  how 
they  have  been  created  nor  how  far  in  advance  of  the 
actual  earning  power  of  the  enterprise.  In  their  turn 
the  securities  have  become  powerful  influences  upon  the 
welfare  of  other  enterprises,  and  even  of  the  general  busi- 
ness public.  The  failure  of  any  conspicuous  enterprise  to 
meet  its  interest  charges  might  so  affect  general  confidence  as 
to  precipitate  a  disaster,  and  would  almost  certainly  lower 
prices  and  unsettle  conditions.  Very  often  the  securities 
have  been  accepted  by  banks  as  collateral  for  loans ;  if 
there  is  default  in  the  interest  the  value  of  the  securities 

223 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

falls;  the  banks  must  demand  more  collateral.  It  is,  there- 
fore, gravely  in  the  interest  of  the  business  world  that 
the  value  of  the  securities  should  be  maintained  and  the 
interest  charges  should  be  met,  even  if  this  is  done  by 
conditions  under  which  the  toilers  of  the  enterprise  are 
insufficiently  nourished,  badly  housed,  and  so  rear  their 
children  as  to  imperil  the  coming  generation. 

The  existence  of  these  securities  and  the  vast  ramifica- 
tions of  their  importance  are  also  a  great  influence  upon 
legislators  and  governments — probably  the  greatest  in- 
fluence. Public  men  hesitate  to  take  any  step  and  law- 
makers to  pass  any  law  that  might  injuriously  affect  the 
price  of  these  securities;  and  politicians  and  political  con- 
ventions are  always  in  awe  of  the  stock  market.  If  the 
election  of  any  candidate  would  injuriously  affect  the 
prices  of  securities,  that  fact  is  held  to  be  a  sufficient 
reason  for  encompassing  his  defeat,  although  the  lowering 
of  the  prices  of  the  securities  would  have  no  effect  upon 
the  men  whose  toil  actually  makes  products,  and  only 
upon  those  that  do  not  toil,  but  at  all  times  receive  an 
unjustly  large  share  of  the   fruits  of  enterprise. 

Yet,  under  the  present  system,  the  securities  that  thus 
reap  widespread  mischief  and  are  in  a  measure  responsible 
for  the  transforming  of  large  populations  into  industrial 
serfs  are  always  unavoidable;  in  no  other  way  can  the 
capital  be  secured  on  which  to  conduct  the  enterprise. 
We  can  no  more  return  to  the  days  of  the  individual 
artisan,  making  the  whole  shoe  or  the  whole  bolt  of  cloth, 
than  we  could  return  to  the  days  of  the  stagecoach. 
Surely  this  is  beyond  question,  and  equally  sure  appears 
the  prospect  that  just  as  industrial  serfdom  has  steadily 
increased  year  by  year  from  the  beginning  of  the  present 
system  to   this   hour   of  this   day,   so   it   will   continue   to 

224. 


Dr.  Sherman's  Celebrated  Specific 

increase  so  long  as  the  present  system  endures.  For 
what  can  by  any  possibility  check  such  a  world-wide  de- 
velopment founded  so  evidently  upon  evolution?  Could 
agitation  or  argument  have  prevented  the  development  of 
the  co-partnership  from  the  individual  enterprise?  Or  of 
the  firm  from  the  co-partnership?  Or  of  the  company 
from  the  firm?  Or  of  the  shoe  factory  from  the  cobbler's 
bench?  Assuredly,  then,  nothing  will  check  that  develop- 
ment now,  and  the  one  choice  given  to  us  is  whether 
we  shall  recognize  the  inevitable  outcome  of  all  this,  or 
leave  our  children  to  find  it  out,  perhaps  after  a  bitter, 
perhaps   after  a  bloody   experience. 

How  comic,  then,  appear  the  Sherman  law,  the  anti- 
trust perturbations  of  Mr.  Bryan  and  others,  and  the 
efforts  of  the  various  states  to  turn  back  this  Niagara! 
The  trust  is  only  the  natural  successor  to  the  company 
and  the  next  step  in  the  evolution.  True,  the  trust  works 
evil  as  well  as  good:  to  increase  arbitrarily  and  avariciously 
the  price  that  the  poor  must  pay  for  meat  is  a  great  evil; 
to  bribe  legislators  and  corrupt  politicians  is  a  great  evil; 
to  interfere  with  the  government  of  the  nation,  to  thrust 
corrupt  men  into  office,  to  interfere  with  the  purity  of 
elections  and  the  sanctity  of  justice  are  very  great  evils. 
But  we  in  no  wise  mitigate  these  evils  by  trying  to  abolish 
the  trust  any  more  than  we  should  make  travel  safe  by 
agitating  for  the  restoration  of  the  stagecoach.  The 
imprisonment  of  a  labor  leader  for  exercising  what  he 
believed  to  be  the  right  of  free  speech  is  no  contribution 
to  the  forward  movement,  but  the  failure  of  the  Sherman  law 
to  be  otherwise  enforced  is  a  subject  for  proper  rejoicing. 

The  trust  will  go  on  and  fill  its  place  in  the  plan  of 
evolution.  Just  as  the  co-partnership  was  an  inevitable 
forerunner  of  the  firm,  the  firm  of  the  company,  and  the 

225 


Why  1  Am  a  Socialist 

company  of  the  trust,  so  the  trust  is  the  forerunner  of 
the  co-operative  commonwealth,  towards  which  all  these 
forces  tend,  and  upon  which  argument  or  protest  are  like 
pebbles  thrown  at  a  battleship.  A  majority  of  the  race 
will  not  be  willing  to  remain  industrial  serfs  when  a  method 
of  supplying  all  the  wants  of  men  without  oppression  or 
injustice,  without  superfluity  on  one  hand  or  insufficiency 
on  the  other,  becomes  apparent. 

Of  the  unequal  and  unjust  distribution  of  wealth,  in- 
cessantly at  work  to  increase  poverty  and  to  make  super- 
fluity more  superfluous,  many  aspects  are  to  be  noted. 
I  have  mentioned  here  only  one,  and  that  perhaps  to  be 
deemed  more  as  an  assistant  influence  than  as  a  cause. 
Extortionate  railroad  rates  are  probably  of  at  least  as 
much  effect.  When  Mr.  Morgan  and  Mr.  Hill,  having 
new  securities  to  provide  for,  decide  to  increase  the  coun- 
try's freight  tariff,  the  results  bear  in  proportion  far  more 
heavily  upon  the  poor  man  than  upon  the  well-to-do.  In 
the  case  of  coal,  we  saw  that  an  initial  increase  of  50 
cents  a  ton  in  the  price  was  an  increase  of  $3  a  ton  when 
it  reached  the  poorest  consumer.  It  was  but  an  increase 
of  50  cents  to  the  ordinary  purchaser,  to  whom  $1  was 
of  actually  less  consequence  than  5  cents  to  the  tene- 
ment house  dweller.  Similarly,  if  the  freight  rates  on 
flour  are  increased  10  per  cent,  from  Minneapolis  to  New 
York  this  increase  means  an  increase  of  25  cents  a  barrel 
to  the  well-to-do  consumer,  who  buys  a  barrel  at  a  time. 
To  the  tenement  house  dweller,  whose  ordinary  purchase 
is  of  two  or  three  pounds  the  increase  is  not  less  than 
$1  a  barrel.  Yet  to  the  well-to-do  the  25  cents  of  increase 
is  of  less  significance  than  1  cent  of  increase  is  to  the 
tenement  house  dweller.  Similar  observations  pertain  to 
the  generality  of  the  tenement  house  dweller's  purchases, 

226 


Dr.  Sherman's  Celebrated  Specific 

so  that  clearly,  as  society  is  now  organized,  the  heaviest 
burdens  fall  upon  those  least  able  to  bear  them;  and  when 
Mr.  Hill  and  Mr.  Morgan  profit  themselves  by  fresh 
issues  of  stock  the  ultimate  payment  of  these  charges  falls 
upon  the  consumer  and  most  grievously  upon  the  poorest 
consumer.  Because  I  need  hardly  point  out  that  when 
freight  rates  are  increased  it  is  not  the  dealer,  nor  the 
shipper,  nor  the  manufacturer,  that  pays  them.  Each  in 
turn  passes  the  charges  (augmented  for  profit)  along  to 
the  next,  until  they  end  with  the  person  that  consumes  the 
product.  This,  again,  is  an  inevitable  feature  of  the 
present  system,  not  to  be  in  the  least  affected  by  any 
curative  nor  restrictive  legislation,  nor  by  denunciations 
of  "  malefactors  of  great  wealth."  So  long  as  we  have 
the  system  we  shall  have  these  results,  and  not  the  "  male- 
factors," but  the  system  alone,  should  be  blamed.  But  so 
long  as  we  have  the  system,  and  so  long  as  day  by  day  it 
increases  the  burdens  borne  by  the  poor,  binds  on  them 
more  firmly  the  fetters  of  their  poverty,  and  increases  their 
numbers,  shall  we  not  cease  to  talk  of  the  land  of  free 
opportunity  and  of  the  chances  of  wealth  here  open  to 
all?  On  the  whole,  does  it  not  seem  rather  a  sorry  jest? 
Consider  the  clerk  or  artisan  that  now  starts  out  in  life 
weighted  down  with  the  slowly  increasing  cost  of  living, 
while  all  the  lines  of  business  that  once  were  held  to  offer 
him  opportunity  are  passing  into  the  ownership  of  great 
combinations.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  what  possible  thrift 
or  energy  or  ability  will  ever  clear  him  from  his  environ- 
ment of  poverty?  The  old  days  wherein  men  began  poor 
and  became  rich  have  passed  from  us.  We  know  that  they 
have  passed;  that  we  should  continue  to  pretend  they  have 
not  is  a  most  extraordinary  attempt  at  national  self-decep- 
tion. 

227 


CHAPTER  XII 

AN   APOLOGY  FOR   STOCK   WATERING 

One  interested  in  the  ruined  castles  of  Europe  may  have 
noticed  that  as  a  rule  these  structures  stand  beside  and 
formerly  commanded  highways  that  in  the  Middle  Ages 
were  the  lines  of  through  traffic. 

Much  merchandise  from  the  Orient  was  in  the  old  days 
landed  at  Venice  or  Genoa  and  transported  by  wagons 
and  pack-trains  that  followed  certain  roads  to  central 
and  western  Europe.  One  of  the  favorite  routes  was  over 
the  Great  St.  Bernard  Pass  to  Martigny,  and  thence  down 
the  Rhone  valley  to  Lake  Leman  and  Geneva.  In  the 
Rhone  valley,  accordingly,  was  a  castle  every  five  miles, 
or  thereabouts.  Another  great  thoroughfare  was  along 
the  Rhine  from  Bale  or  Strassburg  to  the  cities  of  the 
Low  Countries.  Therefore,  along  this  route  were  built 
those  famous  castles  that  are  now  the  wonder  and  delight 
both  of  him  that  views  them  in  reality  and  of  him  whose 
travels  are  achieved  by  means  of  the  lantern  slide.  Wher- 
ever was  a  narrow  and  much  traveled  road,  hemmed  in 
by  a  river  or  a  mountain  wall,  there  the  castles  lowered 
upon  the  wayfarer.  All  the  Alpine  passes  had  them;  in 
the  roads  that  threaded  the  best  known  valleys,  as  along 
the  Adige,  the  Reuss,  the  Ticino,  in  the  Miinsterthal,  and 
similar  regions  was  what  seems  now  an  over-supply. 

The  reason  for  this  distribution  of  strongholds  is  not 
clear  to  us  until  we  learn  that  each  was  the  possession  of 

228 


An  Apology  for  Stock  Watering 

a  feudal  chief,  count,  baron,  or  duke,  and  existed  for  the 
purpose  of  enabling  its  owner  to  levy  upon  the  highway 
the  toll  by  which  he  was  supported.  Every  traveler  along 
the  road,  every  pack-train  or  merchandise  cart  must  pay  a 
tribute  to  the  lord  of  each  castle,  and  upon  this  goodly 
tilth  the  baron  waxed  fat  and  learned  to  despise  toil,  since 
life  could  be  so  easily  maintained  without  it. 

Each  count  or  baron  had  a  body  of  retainers  of  a  size 
commensurate  with  the  pickings  of  the  road  upon  which 
he  had  planted  himself,  and  over  these  retainers  he  had 
the  power  of  life  and  death.  He  could  hang  any  of  them 
at  his  pleasure,  and  as,  in  the  first  half  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
the  jurisdiction  of  each  noble  was  chiefly  a  law  unto  it- 
self so  far  as  its  internal  affairs  were  concerned,  there 
was  neither  appeal  nor  redress  for  the  vassal.  In  return 
for  fighting  the  baron's  battles,  collecting  his  tolls  upon 
the  highway,  hewing  wood,  and  drawing  water,  the  hench- 
man received  his  support,  which  was  believed  by  those  con- 
cerned to  be  all  he  deserved  and  more,  so  that  he  was 
urged  and  commanded  to  be  grateful  to  his  kind,  indulgent 
employer  and  contented  in  the  lot  to  which  an  all-wise 
Providence  had  assigned  him.  As  a  rule  he  needed  very 
little  exhortation  to  these  pious  genuflections ;  he  seems  to 
have  been  devoted  with  canine  loyalty  to  the  master  that 
fed  and  beat  him,  and  was  not  only  willing  to  endure  what- 
ever hardship  might  be  put  upon  him,  but  with  enthusiasm 
and  his  blood,  or  even  his  life,  to  defend  the  master  to 
whom  he  was  believed  to  be  bound.  It  appears  that  the 
Church  heartily  supported  these  conditions,  and  that  to  the 
minds  of  priests,  barons,  lords,  ladies,  parasites  of  all 
degrees,  and  the  henchmen,  the  existing  system  was  not  only 
right,  just,  and  divinely  appointed,  but  the  very  best  system 
that  possibly  could  be  devised  and  certain  to  last  forever, 

229 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

without  the  least  change.  Of  course,  it  was  true  that 
the  barons  and  counts  lived  at  ease  and  had  a  superfluity, 
while  the  henchmen  that  collected  the  tolls  and  fought 
the  battles  and  performed  the  labor  dwelt  in  misery,  igno- 
rance, and  insufficiency;  but  this  was  the  law  of  things, 
and  so  Divine  Will  had  ordained  it. 

Sometimes,  to  be  sure,  the  people  of  the  surrounding 
country  wearied  of  being  robbed,  preyed  upon,  oppressed, 
and  maltreated  by  the  fat  baron,  and  they  arose  in  the 
night  and  burned  the  castle,  and  chased  the  fat  baron  and 
his  family  over  the  border.  But  this  happened  rarely,  and 
only  in  places  where  dwelt  very  peculiar  people,  such  as 
in  Graubunden,  and  the  Forest  Cantons  of  Switzerland. 
Otherwise  the  barons  thrived  mightily  and  lived  of  the 
best,  and  left  to  their  children  the  business  of  toll-taking 
on  the  highways,  which  was  enormously  profitable,  and 
in  all  ways  a  pleasant  business. 

It  appears  that  the  justice  of  the  toll-taking  was  upheld 
upon  two  grounds:  first,  the  piece  of  highway  patrolled  and 
levied  upon  by  the  baron  was  his,  he  had  built  it  (or 
seized  it),  and  therefore  he  was  entitled  to  collect  from 
its  use  what  tolls  he  pleased ;  and  second,  he  had  the  power 
to  collect  the  tolls  whether  he  had  the  right  or  not.  A 
third  reason,  that  the  baron  needed  the  money,  is  seldom 
mentioned,  but  may  be  believed  to  have  been  at  least  as 
potent  as  either  of  the  others. 

The  tolls  collected  from  each  traveler  were  small,  yet 
the  aggregate  for  a  long  journey  was  great;  and  the  result 
was  that  the  cost  of  transporting  merchandise  for  any 
considerable  distance  was  greater  than  the  original  cost 
of  the  merchandise  itself,  and  the  difficulty  of  exchanging 
commodities  was  in  some  cases  almost  prohibitive.  Occa- 
sionally  some  merchant  would  protest   against  this.      He 

230 


An  Apology  for  Stock  Watering 

seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  of  unsound  mind,  a 
dangerous  person,  muck-raker,  or  an  apostle  of  social  unrest. 

Some  of  these  old  castles  are  interesting  studies  to-day. 
One,  of  which  the  wreck  left  by  the  indignant  countryside 
may  still  be  traced  near  Zernetz,  in  the  Engadine,  had 
a  wall  that  crossed  the  road,  so  that  the  only  passage  was 
through  its  doors.  This  seems  to  have  been  an  unusually 
thrifty  '.financier;  he  purposed  that  no  traveler  should 
escape  the  toll.  Another  castle  excellently  preserved,  not 
far  from  Schlanders,  in  Tyrol,  stood  upon  a  perpendicular 
rock  at  the  base  of  which  the  road  wound,  so  encompassed 
that  it  could  be  barricaded  from  above.  On  the  lakes, 
as  at  Chillon  and  the  famous  robber's  den  on  Lake  Mag- 
giore,  the  castles  were  equipped  to  rob  with  equal  facility 
wayfarers  by  land  or  water.  The  whole  system  must  have 
been  ably  managed  and  operated  with  great  success;  but 
even  more  interesting  than  the  signs  of  its  prosperity  is 
the  very  patent  fact  that  in  spite  of  the  pathetic  confidence 
of  its  beneficiaries  and  its  victims  alike  it  no  longer  exists. 

To  this  fact  belong,  also,  some  other  profitable  reflec- 
tions. If  there  be  one  proposition  that  may  be  regarded 
as  determined  by  history,  it  is  that  in  a  form  of  organized 
society  the  control  of  the  highways  is  the  most  important 
of  all  possessions.  Whoever  has  owned  the  highways  of 
any  country  has  virtually  owned  that  country,  no  matter 
how  the  nominal  ownership  might  be  vested.  This  was  a 
fundamental  principle  of  the  Romans,  who,  upon  annexing 
a  province,  at  once  threaded  it  with  new  routes,  which  they 
jealously  guarded,  and  was  the  origin  of  those  marvelous 
roads  of  theirs  that  still  exist  in  many  parts  of  Europe. 
The  same  principle  seems  to  have  been  clearly  perceived 
by  Hannibal  and  by  every  other  conqueror  whose  success 
was  more  than  momentary;  and  in  a  very  impressive  way, 

231 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

to  be  described  later,  the  truth  of  this  principle,  as  the 
prime  necessity  of  government,  has  been  recognized  by 
every  nation  of  modern  Europe. 

All  these  considerations  should  render  more  interesting 
and  significant  to  us  the  next  phase  of  the  American  rail- 
road problem,  which  is  also  the  phase  of  most  importance 
to  the  masses  of  people. 

We  are  rather  accustomed  to  refer  to  the  question  of 
freight  rates  or  tolls  upon  our  railroad  highways  as  if 
it  were  a  question  of  opinion,  or  of  doctrine,  or  of  merely 
academic  dispute.  I  believe  one  may  quite  easily  show 
that  it  is  none  of  these  but  a  question  that  independently 
of  all  opinion,  theory,  argument,  or  desire,  is  steadily  mov- 
ing to  a  state  wherein  it  will  imperatively  demand  settle- 
ment on  a  basis  new  to  us.  I  believe  it  can  be  shown 
that  irresistible  forces  within  the  railroads,  not  outside  of 
them,  will  drive  us  to  a  situation  that  all  men  everywhere 
will  admit  to  be  impossible. 

To  show  this  we  must  have  a  concrete  example,  and 
I  take  the  one  that  happened  to  come  the  closest  to  my 
own  observations.  About  one  hundred  others  equally  perti- 
nent can  be  cited,  but  I  hold  here  to  that  of  which  I  per- 
sonally know  the  most. 

For  several  years  before  1879  there  existed  in  Minne- 
sota a  corporation  called  the  St.  Paul  &  Pacific  Railroad 
Company  and  a  corporation  called  the  First  Division  of 
the  St.  Paul  &  Pacific  Railroad  Company.  These  had 
the  same  management,  and  ostensibly  the  same  purpose, 
but  had  divided  between  them  the  piece  of  railroad  prop- 
erty called  successively  the  Minnesota  &  Pacific  and  the 
St.  Paul  &  Pacific.  By  1873  these  two  corporations  had 
constructed  about  480  miles  of  railroad  from  St.  Paul  to 
Breckinridge,  Minn.,  and  to  other  points  in  the  Northwest. 

232 


An  Apology  for  Stock  Watering 

For  ostensible  purposes  of  construction  the  management 
had  loaded  the  property  with  bond  issues  until  the  earnings 
would  not  pay  the  interest  charges.  The  public  history  of 
these  transactions  is  very  obscure,  but  for  the  initiated 
enough  is  doubtless  contained  in  the  fact  that  one  of  the 
corporations  was  a  construction  company  for  the  other, 
and  that  construction  worth  $10,000  (or  less)  a  mile  was 
charged  for  at  the  rate  of  $30,000  a  mile.  This  speedily 
brought  the  concern  to  its  knees,  and  in  the  United  States 
Circuit  Court  a  receiver  was  appointed. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  property  should  never  have  been 
in  financial  difficulties,  for  it  was  supported  by  an  enormous 
grant  of  public  land,  it  had  received  from  state  and  local 
governments  many  valuable  privileges,  and  it  traversed  a 
region  of  almost  unparalleled  fertility.  But  physically 
and  in  other  ways  the  management  had  been  so  bad  that 
when  the  receiver  took  charge  he  found  the  property  chiefly 
in  the  condition  of  so  much  junk. 

The  bonds  were  held  mostly  in   Holland.     Mr.   James 

J.  Hill  was  then  a  small  commission  merchant  in  St.  Paul. 

He  had  previously  been  an  employee  of  the   St.   Paul  & 

Pacific,    and    knew    something    of    its    real    foundation,    if 

not  of  its  inside  and  devious  history.     With  three  friends 

he    entered    into    an    arrangement    by    which   some    of    the 

Dutch  bondholders  were  induced  to  surrender  their  bonds 

in  trust,  while  the  bonds  of  others  were  bought  with  money 

secured  from  the  Bank  of  Montreal  by  Mr.  George  Stephen, 

one  of  Mr.  Hill's  associates  and  at  that  time  manager  of 

the  bank.     When  on   June    1,    1879,  the   receiver  offered 

the  road   for  sale,   Mr.   Hill   and   his   associates  bought  it 

for  $3,600,000,*  and  paid  for  it  with  the  bonds  they  had 

*  See  Steenerson  vs.  Great  Northern  Railway  Company,  69 
Minnesota,   372.     The   purchase  was   subject  to  a  prior   lien   of 

$186,000. 

233 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

collected.  They  immediately  reorganized  the  property  into 
the  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  &  Manitoba  Railroad.  On  this 
they  issued  $8,000,000  of  bonds,  which  they  sold  to  the 
public  at  more  than  par,  and  $15,000,000  of  stock,  which 
they  divided  among  themselves,  none  of  them  paying  a 
cent  for  it.  With  the  proceeds  of  the  bonds  they  settled 
with  the  Dutch  bondholders  and  the  Bank  of  Montreal, 
and  then  had  (as  incidental  profits)  a  remainder  of  $4,- 
400,000  of  bonds  worth  104.  They  had  also  the  $15,000,- 
000  of  stock,  which  was  worth  in  the  market  140;  2,580- 
606  acres  of  land  grants,  subsequently  proved  to  be  worth 
more  than  $13,000,000;  and  a  railroad  that  the  receiver 
had  put  into  good  condition  and  extended  until  it  com- 
prised 565  miles  of  track;  and  all  this  they  secured  without 
the  investment  of  a  dollar. 

They  now  proceeded  to  issue  fresh  securities  upon  this 
property,  usually  to  themselves,  for  small  prices, 
although  always  worth  more  than  par  on  the  market. 
Sometimes  the  securities  issued  had  some  basis  in  an  im- 
provement or  extension;  more  often  they  constituted  only 
what  is  called  in  high  finance  "  a  melon,"  or  in  other 
words  they  were  merely  gifts  taken  out  of  the  enter- 
prise by  its  fortunate  managers  and  presented  to  them- 
selves. Each  such  gift  loaded  the  property  with  securi- 
ties on  which  it  must  earn  every  year  dividends  and  interest, 
so  that  each  bore  with  it  a  long  trail  of  annual  gifts  that 
stretched  into  future  generations,  all  to  be  paid  from  the 
charges  or  tolls  imposed  upon  the  public.  After  ten  years 
of  such  proceedings,  when  they  had  brought  the  capitaliza- 
tion of  the  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  &  Manitoba  to  $80,985,- 
000,  they  reorganized  it,  for  their  greater  convenience  in 
providing  these  profits,  into  the  Great  Northern,  issued 
an  entirely  new  set  of  stocks   and  bonds,   and   extended 

234 


An  Apology  for  Stock  Watering 

their  railroad  to  the  Pacific  coast.  Thereupon,  they  began 
a  new  course  of  "  melon  cutting  "  even  more  profitable  than 
the  old.  Thirty  years  after  they  had  without  capital 
embarked  upon  their  venture  they  had  cleared  from  the 
enterprise  $407,000,000  of  profits,  which  they  had  divided 
among  themselves  and  those  that  in  the  later  years  they 
had  admitted  to  share  in  these  goodly  matters.  The  capi- 
talization of  the  Great  Northern  Railroad  was  now 
$250,000,000. 

That  they  might  secure  money  to  pay  the  interest  on 
the  bonds  and  the  dividends  on  the  stock  comprising  this 
enormous  capitalization,  a  great  part  of  which  represented 
"  melons,"  the  managers  of  the  Great  Northern  made  cer- 
tain freight  rates  or  tolls  that  by  much  of  the  country 
traversed  by  the  railroad  were  regarded  as  unjust  and 
extortionate.  After  some  years  of  bitter  complaint  the 
people  in  this  region  revolted,  and  before  the  Inter-State 
Commerce  Commission  they  attacked  the  toll-takers.  They 
showed  to  the  Commission  how  the  toll-taking  affected 
them  in  their  daily  lives  and  businesses,  how  it  had  in- 
creased for  them  the  cost  of  living  and  circumscribed  their 
activities,  and  revealed  as  clearly  as  need  be  the  great 
and  anciently  approved  truth  that  the  control  of  the  high- 
ways is  to  any  people  their  first  rational  concern. 

Now  the  stocks  and  bonds  that  were  the  origin  of  these 
charges  complained  of  by  the  people  were  what  are  com- 
monly called  "  watered  securities,"  and  differed  in  no  par- 
ticular from  millions  of  the  like  securities  issued  by  other 
railroads  in  the  country.  What  Mr.  Hill  and  his  associates 
had  done  with  the  old  St.  Paul  &  Pacific  property  had 
been  done  with  every  other  railroad  property  in  the  United 
States,  so  that  of  the  sixteen  billion  dollars  of  total  capi- 
talization  of   such    railroads    not   less   than    nine    billions 

235 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

represented  securities  issued  in  the  way  that  Mr.  Hill 
and  his  associates  had  issued  theirs,  and  for  the  same  pur- 
pose. That  is  to  say,  they  were  in  no  sense  investments 
in  the  property.  They  provided  for  no  improvement  or 
expenditure,  and  were  merely  securities  issued  by  the  own- 
ers of  the  railroad  for  their  own  profit,  and  paid  for  by 
the  tolls  collected  from  the  public.  The  case  of  Mr.  Hill 
and  the  Great  Northern  was  only  a  type  and  an  example 
of  a  universal  practice. 

So,  therefore,  if  the  showing  of  the  rebellious  people  in 
this  instance  was  veritable,  all  the  rest  of  the  people  of 
the  United  States  were  by  other  railroad  companies  sub- 
jected to  similar  tolls  that  had  the  same  results  in  in- 
creased cost  of  living  and  restricted  activities. 

The  justice  of  this  form  of  toll-taking  was,  and  is,  up- 
held upon  two  chief  grounds  for  we  need  never  suppose 
that  any  general  condition  exists  without  plausible  reasons. 

First,  it  is  urged  that  what  are  called  "  watered  securi- 
ties "  are  perfectly  legitimate  and  not  open  to  any  objec- 
tion, because  they  are  always  based  upon  actual  values 
(perhaps  better  called  potential  values)  in  the  earning 
power  of  the  property,  or  in  the  increased  worth  of  its 
real  estate  terminals  and  right  of  way — or  in  both.  If 
a  railroad  is  capitalized  at  $100,000,000,  and  can  be  made 
to  earn  dividends  on  $200,000,000,  then  its  capitalization 
may  justly  be  increased  to  $200,000,000.  If  its  real 
estate,  terminals  and  right  of  way  were  worth  $50,000,000 
ten  years  ago,  and  by  the  increase  of  population  and  the 
growth  of  cities  have  become  worth  $100,000,000,  then 
the  additional  $50,000,000  may  justly  be  represented  in 
an  additional  stock  issue  of  $50,000,000.  The  value  of 
the  property  in  former  years  and  the  amount  actually 
invested  in  it  are  not  factors  in  the  problem.     The  only 

236 


An  Apology  for  Stock  Watering 

question  is,  What  is  the  property  worth  now?  And  what- 
ever the  sum  may  be,  that  sum  is  entitled  to  be  capitalized, 
nor  can  any  just  exception  be  taken  to  any  tolls  levied 
to  support  that  capitalization.  The  property  is  worth  so 
much;  then  the  owners  of  the  property  have  a  right  to 
a  return  upon  so  much. 

Second,  the  stocks  and  bonds  thus  issued  do  not 
usually  remain  in  the  hands  of  the  men  that  issue  them, 
but  are  sold  by  these  men  to  the  general  public.  They 
thus  become  investments,  made  in  good  faith,  and  entitled 
as  property  to  protection  and  consideration.  If  the  freight 
rates  made  in  part  to  support  these  securities  be  reduced 
the  value  of  the  securities  will  also  be  reduced,  and  there 
will  result  an  unjustifiable  injury  to  property  and  to  what 
is  known  as  the  "  innocent  purchaser." 

Moreover,  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  there  lingers  in 
the  minds  of  many  men  a  strong  belief  in  the  doctrine 
that  the  highways  belong  to  the  railroad  companies,  and 
that  therefore  the  railroad  companies  may  properly  deal 
as  they  please  with  their  own  and  levy  such  tolls  as  may 
seem  fitting.  In  many  cases  the  gentlemen  that  draw  the 
huge  profits  from  these  operations  are  supposed  to  have 
built  the  highways,  and  their  profits  to  be  only  a  just 
reward  for  the  benefits  they  have  thereby  conferred.  To 
assure  ourselves  that  this  is  so  we  need  only  refer  to 
the  eulogies  lavished  upon  Mr.  Hill,  even  by  some  of  those 
that  have  fared  but  ill  as  a  consequence  of  his  proceedings. 
We  are  told  by  these  panegyrists  that  Mr.  Hill  has  de- 
veloped the  Northwest;  that  the  railroads  he  has  built  have 
been  of  incalculable  benefit;  and  it  seems  to  be  assumed 
both  that  without  him  the  Northwest  would  have  had  no 
railroads  and  that  for  having  conferred  railroads  upon  the 
Northwest  the  millions  he  has  reaped  from  his  tolls  are  no 

237 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

excessive  reward.  Therefore,  the  people  that  have  paid 
his  tolls  have  no  right  to  complain;  all  that  a  man  can 
make  by  the  use  of  his  own  he  is  entitled  to  make,  say 
these  gentlemen,  not,  perhaps,  aware  that  with  exactly 
such  a  phrase  the  baron  of  Zernetz  castle  and  his  class 
were  wont  to  justify  their  toll-taking  on  the  old  highway. 

I  return  now  to  the  defense  of  what  is  called  "  stock- 
watering,"  because  from  the  earnestness  with  which  it  is 
repeated  in  railroad  circles  and  among  railroads  attorneys 
we  may  believe  that  the  issue  of  this  inevitable  problem 
will  center  first  around  this  defense. 

To  make  it  somewhat  clearer.  In  1864  the  Chicago  & 
Rock  Island  Railroad  bought  for  about  $25,000  certain 
tracts  of  land  in  the  city  of  Chicago.  The  present  value 
of  that  land  is  more  than  $6,000,000.  According  to  the 
argument  we  are  considering  that  land  should  be  reckoned 
for  securities,  not  on  the  basis  of  the  investment  in  it, 
$25,000,  but  on  the  basis  of  the  present  value,  $6,000,000. 
It  is  worth  $6,000,000,  but  it  is  unproductive  of  any 
direct  revenue  as  land  because  it  is  used  for  the  railroad's 
purposes.  Nevertheless,  there  remains  the  value,  and  very 
properly  this  may  be  represented  in  an  issue  of  $6,000,000 
of  securities  on  which  the  tolls  levied  throughout  the  region 
traversed  by  the  railroad  may  be  used  to  pay  the  interest 
or  dividends. 

Similarly  (still  pursuing  the  argument)  it  is  not  the 
money  Mr.  Hill  invested  in  his  railroad  property  that  is 
the  proper  basis  of  his  profits,  because  he  never  made  any 
such  investment.  He  is  entitled  to  interest  on  the  present 
value  of  the  property,  however  he  may  have  obtained  it; 
he  is  also  entitled  to  capitalize  this  value,  and  he  is  en- 
titled also  to  capitalize  the  earning  power  of  the  enter- 
prise.    His  terminals  at  Seattle  may  have  cost  him  origi- 

238 


An  Apology  for  Stock  Watering 

nally  $1,000,000,  let  us  suppose.  Seattle  has  since  then 
increased  much  in  population  and  business  importance,  so 
that  what  was  worth  in  1890  $1,000,000  may  be  worth 
$5,000,000.  Then  he  is  entitled  to  draw  interest  on  that 
$5,000,000,  and  to  secure  that  interest  through  the  issue 
of  $5,000,000  of  bonds  or  stocks  as  he  may  elect.  Indeed, 
it  is  only  by  the  issuing  of  such  securities  that  he  can 
get  profit  from  this  value,  otherwise  it  is  an  inert  and 
nominal  asset.  The  public  lands  bestowed  by  the  people 
of  the  United  States  upon  the  company  that  he  acquired 
may  have  proved  to  be  worth  $13,000,000;  that,  so  long 
as  it  remained,  was  available  for  capitalization,  for  stocks, 
bonds,  and  freight  charges,  although  it  was  the  free  gift 
of  the  people  and  cost  him  nothing.  The  municipality  of 
Spokane  granted  him  freely  a  right  of  way  five  miles 
long  through  the  city.  If  that  right  of  way  is  now  worth 
$5,000,000  he  is  entitled  to  count  that  as  an  asset  of  his 
railroad,  to  capitalize  it,  and  to  make  whatever  freight 
or  passenger  rates  may  be  necessary  to  sustain  that  capi- 
talization. The  people  of  Spokane  may,  indeed,  point 
out  that  when  they  donated  the  right  of  way  to  Mr.  Hill's 
company  they  merely  added  to  their  own  burdens,  since 
it  gave  to  that  company  an  item  of  capitalization  on  which 
they  must  pay  the  interest  in  the  shape  of  increased  high- 
way tolls.  To  any  such  contention  the  reply  is  that  the 
people  of  Spokane  should  have  thought  of  this  contingency 
before  they  bestowed  their  gift.  The  fact  that  they  must 
pay  annually  for  their  benevolence  cannot  be  allowed  to 
interfere  with  the  right  of  property  to  earn  interest.  Even 
if  there  were  no  other  consideration,  the  innocent  pur- 
chaser would  be  an  insuperable  barrier  to  the  plea  of  the 
Spokane  people.  The  stocks  or  bonds  that  represent  the 
additional  capitalization   must  pay   their   dividends   or   in- 

239 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

terest;  otherwise  the  innocent  purchaser  would  be  defrauded 
and  a  precedent  established  that  would  make  impossible 
some  of  our  most  important  financial  operations. 

This  argument  must  be  just  and  sound;  both  the  courts 
and  the  Inter-State  Commerce  Commission  have  refused  to 
interfere  with  securities  issued  upon  such  bases  as  are  here 
outlined. 

I  now  call  attention  to  the  next  steps  in  this  agreeable 
progression. 

First,  the  value  of  all  railroad  property  is  increasing. 
Much  of  it  is  increasing  very  rapidly  with  the  increase 
of  the  country's  population,  and  especially  with  the  growth 
of  cities.  Property  of  the  Northern  Pacific  that  was  worth 
$50,000,000  twenty  years  ago  is  worth  $175,000,000  to- 
day, and  will  be  worth  $300,000,000  within  the  next  five  or 
six  years.  Property  in  Chicago  bought  twenty-five  years 
ago  by  the  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  must  be  worth 
now  $14,000,000,  probably  six  times  its  purchase  price. 
The  railroad  terminals  at  Chicago,  Jersey  City,  St.  Louis, 
East  St.  Louis,  Portland  (Ore.),  St.  Paul,  Seattle,  Atlanta, 
increase  rapidly  in  value.  At  most  of  the  railroad  stations, 
great  or  small,  in  the  United  States,  the  value  of  the 
station  grounds,  switching  yards,  roundhouses,  office 
buildings,  and  what  not,  is  subject  to  continual  increase. 
Nearly  all  rights  of  way  become  more  valuable  year  by 
year.  All  such  increased  value  may  be  capitalized,  and  the 
securities  thus  issued  may  justly  in  turn  produce  an  in- 
crease in  rates. 

Where,  then,  shall  the  process  halt?  Or  what  power  on 
earth  shall  halt  it?  And  what  is  the  use  of  debating  other 
phases  of  the  railroad  problem,  or  looking  upon  it  as 
any  matter  of  opinion  so  long  as  we  are  confronted  with 
this   overshadowing  prospect? 

240 


An  Apology  for  Stock  Watering 

Under  the  present  system  these  conditions  are  absolutely 
right  and  just,  nor  can  they  be  evaded  or  mitigated.  If 
we  attempt  to  say  that  the  railroad  shall  not  issue  stocks 
and  bonds  against  the  increased  value  of  its  possessions, 
then  we  are  denying  a  fundamental  principle  of  the  right 
of  property.  How  could  the  increased  value  be  realized 
except  by  the  issue  of  such  stocks  and  bonds?  If  we  were 
to  enact  a  law  forbidding  such  realizing  of  value,  that 
would  be  confiscation,  which  is  strictly  forbidden  by  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Or  if  we  say,  by  the 
Inter-State  Commerce  Commission  or  otherwise,  that  a  rail- 
road shall  not  make  the  rates  that  are  required  to  meet 
the  interest  charges  on  such  securities,  then  we  shall  do 
to  the  holders  of  these  securities  a  wrong  that  is  essen- 
tially unjustifiable,  unconstitutional,  and  has  been  repeat- 
edly condemned  by  our  courts.  In  good  faith  these  securi- 
ties have  been  purchased ;  they  are  property ;  they  cannot 
be  destroyed;  they  are  entitled  to  the  protection  of  the 
law;  the  persons  that  purchase  them  are  entitled  to  fair 
returns  on  their  investment;  and  any  law  that  will  prevent 
such  returns  is  clearly  wrong,  and  would  be  found  to  be 
invalid. 

What  we  face,  therefore,  is  an  impossible  condition  from 
which  no  remedy  that  would  maintain  the  present  system 
offers  the  slightest  escape.  The  value  of  railroad  property 
is  certain  to  increase  rapidly.  The  amount  of  railroad 
securities  is  certain  to  increase  still  more  rapidly.  On 
these  securities  interest  must  be  paid.  To  meet  the  interest 
the  income  of  the  railroad  must  be  increased  or  its  ex- 
penditures diminished.     What  then? 

The  increase  in  values  and  the  increase  of  securities 
naturally  result  in  augmented  transportation  cost,  the 
tendency  of  which  is  continually  upward.     On  January  1, 

241 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

1909,  transcontinental  freight  rates  underwent  increases 
averaging  eighteen  per  cent.,  and  these  increases  were  based 
upon  and  defended  by  the  very  conditions  I  have  here 
outlined.  In  the  last  fifteen  years  the  average  passenger 
rates  between  New  York  and  Chicago  have  been  adroitly 
advanced  fifteen  per  cent.  Charges  in  the  freight  classi- 
fications (a  fruitful  source  of  extortion)  are  made  so  as  to 
provide  increased  revenue  and  in  reality  increased  tolls, 
without  apparently  increased  rates.  It  is  true  that  in 
some  states  the  legislatures,  under  the  pressure  of  growing 
public  complaint,  have  passed  laws  reducing  passenger  or 
freight  rates,  or  both;  but  most  of  these  laws  have  been 
abolished  by  the  courts,  and  all  of  them  are  doomed.  We 
are  also  to  note  that  besides  increased  rates,  the  tolls 
can  be  collected  through  diminished  service  or  a  service 
that  fails  to  keep  pace  with  the  public  demand,  or 
by  allowing  the  equipment  to  deteriorate.  The  equip- 
ment phase  conceals,  as  many  investigators  know,  a 
condition  that  in  itself  promises  to  become  appalling. 
The  tracks  and  roadbeds  of  many  railroads  are  not  main- 
tained to  the  demands  of  either  safety  or  capacity,  and  in 
this  fact  is  found  the  explanation  of  a  large  percentage 
of  those  railroad  accidents,  in  which  our  record  surpasses 
that  of  any  other  nation  on  earth.  As  to  the  failure 
to  maintain  service  conditions  equal  to  the  demand,  I  need 
to  refer  to  only  two  pregnant  facts.  One  is  the  wide- 
spread distress  caused  in  the  West  in  the  winter  of  1906-7 
by  the  inadequate  supply  of  freight  cars,  and  the  other 
is  that  of  the  237,000  miles  of  railroad  in  the  United  States 
only  18,000  miles  are  double-tracked.  The  gravity  of  the 
equipment  problem  has  been  explicitly  admitted  by  Mr. 
Hill,  himself  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  beneficiaries  of 
the  system  that  has  so  disastrously  impaired  the  country's 

242 


An  Apology  for  Stock  Watering 

transportation  service.  For  some  reason  unknown  to  me, 
Mr.  Hill's  warning,  which  he  has  several  times  repeated, 
has  never  had  adequate  attention.  I  do  not  know  how 
it  would  be  possible  to  frame  a  stronger  indictment  of 
the  present  system,  nor  to  make  an  utterance  better  deserv- 
ing of  the  country's  gravest  attention.  Mr.  Hill  says 
that  to  put  the  railroads  of  this  country  into  a  physical 
condition  in  which  they  can  properly  meet  the  present 
transportation  requirements  would  cost  five  billion  dollars. 
In  other  words,  under  the  present  system  the  equipment 
of  the  railroads  has  run  behind  to  the  extent  of  one-third 
the  capitalization.  That  is  a  fact  of  tremendous  signifi- 
cance. The  average  cost  of  railroad  construction  and 
equipment  is  about  $26,000  a  mile.  On  these  237,000  miles 
of  railroad  Mr.  Hill  proposes  an  expenditure  of  more  than 
$21,000  a  mile  in  improvements,  which  amounts  almost  to 
rebuilding  and  re-equipping.  If  after  the  issuing  of  nine 
billion  dollars  of  watered  capital,  on  which  the  country  is 
paying,  and  must  continue  to  pay  the  interest  charges,  the 
physical  condition  of  the  property  has  been  allowed  to  be- 
come impaired  to  the  extent  of  four-fifths  the  actual 
cost  of  building  and  equipping,  I  cannot  see  how  Mr.  Hill 
leaves  room  for  one  word  to  be  said  in  favor  of  the  present 
system.  It  is  the  most  colossal  failure  in  the  history  of 
the  world. 

Mr.  Hill  seems  also  to  be  convinced  that  this  is  a 
practical  condition  and  not  a  theory  with  which  we  must 
shortly  deal,  for  he  says  that  as  this  work  must  be  done, 
and  as  the  railroad  companies  cannot  possibly  raise  the 
money  required  for  it,  the  United  States  Government  must 
come  to  the  rescue  of  the  country  and  advance  the  funds 
for  the  improvements. 

We  can  see  how  just  is  Mr.  Hill's  statement  (so  far  as 

243 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

it  goes)  if  we  reflect  upon  the  difficulties  that  railroad 
companies  have  recently  met  in  floating  extensive  financial 
schemes.  Evidently,  then,  as  Mr.  Hill  says,  they  would 
find  it  impossible  to  borrow  five  billion  dollars,  or  any- 
thing like  it.  By  no  possible  form  of  obligation  could 
they  raise  this  sum,  and  yet  one  of  the  greatest  railroad 
authorities  in  the  world  declares  that  they  must  have  it 
if  they  are  to  continue  to  supply  the  country's  transpor- 
tation. 

It  is  most  evident,  then,  that  already  the  present  system 
has  practically  collapsed.  It  is  broken-backed;  it  has 
broken  down  under  the  methods  of  loot  that  have  been 
practiced  upon  it;  within  a  comparatively  short  time  the 
nation  must  face  the  great  problem  that  it  involves,  and 
there  can  be  no  man  so  foolish  as  to  think  the  methods 
that  have  effected  its  ruin  can  ever  restore  it. 

Of  course,  when  we  turn  to  the  other  side  of  the  stock- 
watering  trick,  the  aspect  is  very  different.  It  has  un- 
deniably been  very  efficient  in  swiftly  building  the  fortunes 
of  the  gentlemen  that  have  played  it  so  repeatedly,  but 
that  Mr.  Hill  or  Mr.  Morgan  should  get  rich  rapidly  is 
of  no  conceivable  advantage  to  the  public;  the  public  gains 
absolutely  nothing  in  any  way  from  these  fortunes.  Mr. 
Hill  builds  him  a  palace  and  Mr.  Morgan  a  new  steam 
yacht,  but  neither  the  palace  nor  the  yacht  helps  the 
community;  to  the  community  it  can  be  of  no  concern 
whether  Mr.  Morgan  has  one  yacht  or  one  hundred.  What 
concerns  the  community  is  that  it  furnishes  the  yacht  and 
the  palace  and  gets  no  return  for  its  expenditure ;  for 
both  yacht  and  palace  are  wholly  extraneous  to  the  public 
service  of  transportation,  as  extraneous  as  was  the  baron's 
castle   on  the   Zernetz   road. 

How  absolutely  true  it  is  that  the  community  (and  chiefly 

244 


An  Apology  for  Stock  Watering 

the  poorest  part  thereof)  furnishes  these  pleasures  we 
can  see  if  we  reflect  upon  a  few  obvious  facts.  First, 
whether  the  watered  stocks  and  bonds  that  Mr.  Hill  and 
Mr.  Morgan  issue  for  their  own  profit  be  based  nominally 
on  the  increased  valuation  of  railroad  property  or  on  its 
earning  power,  the  securities  always  appear  a  long  time 
before  there  is  any  conceivable  warrant  for  them,  and  the 
value  or  the  earning  power  is  estimated  solely  by  the  gentle- 
men that  purpose  to  make  profits  for  themselves  from  the 
securities.  They  assume  that  the  property  has  taken  on 
another  hundred  million  dollars  of  value,  or  that  another 
hundred  million  dollars  of  profits  can  be  wrung  from  it; 
then  they  issue  and  sell  the  securities,  pocketing  the  profits, 
and  the  property  must  secure  from  the  public  the  money 
for  the  interest  charges. 

For  instance,  Commodore  Vanderbilt  laid  the  foundations 
of  the  Vanderbilt  fortune  when  he  issued  $45,000,000  of 
watered  stock  upon  a  property  already  staggering  under 
a  colossal  load  of  such  securities.  Most  of  this  he  took 
for  himself;  all  of  it  became  a  huge  machine  to  draw 
from  the  community  additional  money  through  additional 
charges.  So  far  was  this  increase  from  an  actual  founda- 
tion in  increased  value  that  more  than  twenty  years  passed 
before  anyone  dared  to  assert  an  approach  to  equality 
between  the  value  of  the  property  and  the  value  of  the 
securities.  Yet  all  this  time  the  securities  were  steadily 
drawing  from  the  public  money  that,  even  if  we  accept 
the  entire  argument  of  the  railroad  attorneys,  we  must 
admit  to  have  been  money  extorted.  I  have  never  heard 
of  any  defense  for  this  condition,  nor  heard  of  anybody 
that  had  heard  of  anybody  that  had  heard  of  one. 

But  at  the  earliest  moment  when,  with  any  face  the 
thing  could  be  done,  the  Vanderbilt  interests  issued  a  new 

245 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

flood  of  securities,  and  sunk  a  new  pump  into  the  public 
pocket,  and  they  or  their  successors  have  continued  this 
practice  ever  since. 

In  other  words,  and  to  change  the  figure,  Commodore 
Vanderbilt  was  a  new  baron  lately  arrived  upon  the  high- 
way. The  $45,000,000  of  watered  stock  was  a  new  castle 
that  he  built  with  a  barrier  across  the  pass  and  every 
arrangement  for  the  taking  of  much  toll.  This  castle  is  still 
in  operation  with  its  toll-taking.  As  soon  as  the  people 
had  become  accustomed  to  the  sight  of  the  one  castle, 
the  baron's  son  built  another  farther  down  the  road,  which 
is  also  still  taking  toll;  and  the  second  baron's  sons,  and 
the  third  baron's  sons  have  continued  to  build  other  castles 
until  the  poorer  travelers  are  finding  that  the  successive 
tolls  have  emptied  their  purses.  They  have,  however,  the 
pleasure  of  contemplating  the  beautiful  castles  (from  a 
distance),  and  also  occasionally  learning  where  the  tolls 
go.  They  must  have  been  gratified  to  learn  lately  that 
some  of  the  tolls,  changed  into  a  pearl  necklace,  had  been 
bestowed  upon  the  mistress  of  a  king. 

How  sadly  true  and  just  and  unexaggerated  all  this 
really  is  one  can  see  if  one  will  refer  to  the  case  of  the 
bucket  of  coal,  with  which  we  started.  Here  was  the 
exact  and  perfect  instance  of  the  entire  process  as  at 
present  conducted  in  all  of  these  railroad  enterprises. 
Follow  the  successive  steps  of  the  practice  and  see  what 
they  mean.  The  gentlemen  that  conducted  the  Philadelphia 
&  Reading  Railroad  issued  for  their  own  profit  securities 
upon  that  railroad.  It  appeared  that  the  earnings  of  the 
road  were  insufficient  to  provide  the  interest  on  these 
securities.  They  saw  that  with  coal  at  $5  a  ton  the  annual 
profits  were  a  certain  amount;  with  coal  at  $5.50  a  ton 
the  annual  profits   would  be   so  much   more.      They   also 

246 


An  Apology  for  Stock  Watering 

perceived  that  by  forming  a  combination  with  two  other 
railroads  they  could  make  the  price  of  coal  $5.50  a  ton, 
capitalize  an  earning  capacity,  and  earn  the  interest  upon 
the  present  securities  and  others.  So  they  formed  the  com- 
bination, made  the  price  of  coal  $5.50,  capitalized  the 
earning  capacity,  and  gathered  the  tolls  for  the  new  securi- 
ties. And  for  the  poor  people  on  the  East  Side  the  price 
of  coal  rose  from  $15  to  $18  a  ton. 

It  rose  only  50  cents  a  ton  for  the  well-to-do,  but  it 
rose  $3  a  ton  for  the  poor. 

So  is  it  with  all  these  achievements  in  finance  and  all 
these  fortune  makings.  The  palaces  rise,  the  steam  yachts 
sail,  the  figures  of  the  great  fortune  mount,  and  in  every 
city  the  slums  spread,  the  bread  lines  grow,  and  the  num- 
bers of  the  poor  increase.  When  we  contemplate  these 
facts  we  may  rejoice  in  Mr.  Hill's  assurance  that  the 
present  system  has  broken  down.  It  has  existed  much 
too  long.  The  collapse  of  it  will  not  restore  to  the  people 
the  tolls  that  have  been  unjustly  taken  from  them,  but 
we  may  believe  that  we  are  on  the  imminent  verge  of  the 
end  of  our  castle  system.  When  the  people  of  Europe 
wearied  of  paying  toll  to  the  barons  for  the  use  of  the 
highways  the  barons  went  out  of  the  toll-taking  business, 
and  the  people's  highways  were  made  free.  Then  it  was 
realized  that  a  highway  is  always  the  common  possession 
and  cannot  rightfully  belong  to  any  man,  baron  or  rail- 
road magnate,  the  Count  of  Zernetz  or  Mr.  Morgan; 
that  barons  are  no  more  necessary  to  the  building  or 
operating  of  highways  than  are  mosquitoes  or  flies;  and 
that  the  building  of  the  castle  or  the  building  of  a  rail- 
road magnate's  palace  confers  nothing  upon  transportation 
service  nor  upon  any  other  interest  of  the  public.  We 
shall  shortly  learn  the  same  lesson  here. 

247 


CHAPTER  XIII 


A   PLEA   FOR   THE    RICH 


In  the  excellent  art  gallery  of  Sydney,  New  South 
Wales,  is  a  bronze  bust  of  a  man  with  a  face  expressive 
of  cold  resolution  and  powerful  will;  the  short  mustaches 
bristle  aggressively,  the  jaw  is  thrust  forward,  the  brows 
are  heavy  and  coarse.  My  first  observation  of  this  work 
was  from  a  point  whence  the  inscription  upon  it  was  not 
visible. 

"  Look !  "  I  said  to  my  companion,  "  there  is  a  bust  of 
X ;  how  do  you  suppose  that  came  here  ?  " 

"  It  does  look  like  X ,"  said  my  companion,  "  but 

it  is  evidently  meant  for  Y ;  that  is  Y 's  pro- 
jecting jaw,  you  know.  But  it  certainly  seems  strange  to 
see  him  here  at  the  other  end  of  the  earth." 

In  entire  good  faith,  I  had  mentioned  the  name  of  one 
famous  Wall  Street  operator,  my  companion  had  mentioned 
another:  neither  had  any  doubt  that  the  bust  was  the 
likeness  of  someone  well  known  to  us,  nor  could  any  ob- 
servant American  fail  to  perceive  that  here  was  some 
countenance  made  familiar  to  him  by  newspaper  por- 
traiture. 

When  we  moved  down  the  aisle  we  read  the  inscription 
on  the  bust.  It  was  a  quotation  from  somebody's  history, 
and  ran  like  this: 

"  The  founder  of  Islam  was  a  man  conspicuous  for 
cruelty,   avarice,   selfishness,   and   cold   sensualism."      The 

248 


A  Plea  for  the  Rich 

artist  had  tried  to  make  a  face  expressive  of  these  qualities, 
and  had  made  one  that  looked  like  an  American  million- 
aire. 

Two  years  afterwards  one  of  the  men  whose  likeness 
we  thought  we  had  discovered  in  the  bust  was  at  a  European 
summer  resort.  It  was  sometimes  my  fortune  to  walk  down 
the  promenade  just  after  him.  I  think  no  one  so  walking 
could  have  failed  to  notice  the  impression  this  man's  face 
made  on  the  people  he  met.  As  they  gazed  upon  him  I 
could  see  wonder  and  a  trace  of  awe  growing  upon  them; 
often  they  would  stop  still  as  if  they  saw  something  weird 
or  uncanny,  and  then  go  on  and  turn  to  gaze  again,  and 
talk  among  themselves,  shaking  their  heads ;  and  I,  passing 
along,  would  hear  ejaculations  and  questions,  for  most  of 
them  had  never  seen  a  face  like  that,  and  it  seemed  to 
them  hardly  human. 

Yet  I  am  sure  it  was  a  face  never  much  remarked  at 
home,  and  though  more  plainly  scored  and  marked  than 
most  faces,  still  in  its  lines  recording  a  common  story. 
I  suppose  it  would  be  difficult  to  pretend  that  the  reading 
is  ever  very  agreeable.  In  this  case  it  was  of  a  man 
that  by  savage  and  relentless  methods,  throwing  himself 
into  the  confused  battle  of  business  as  a  red  Indian  might 
have  thrown  himself  into  a  desperate  affray,  had  amassed 
a  colossal  fortune,  wrenched  from  the  hands  of  other  men. 
Some  of  his  achievements,  indeed,  had  been  rather  worse 
than  savage,  and  reported  to  be  beyond  the  law;  but  law 
and  the  interests  of  the  public,  like  the  rights  and  welfare 
of  others,  he  had  trampled  upon  so  ruthlessly  men  said 
of  him  that  in  the  seventeenth  century  he  would  have  been 
a  pirate,  and  drew  parallels  between  his  deeds  and  those 
of  famous  buccaneers. 

Before  he  had  reached  middle  life  this  man  had  gained 

249 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

in  these  ways  one  of  the  greatest  fortunes  in  the  world, 
so  that  by  no  possibility  could  he  expend  his  princely 
income.  He  built  for  himself  great  houses  and  bought 
great  estates,  he  owned  a  steam  yacht;  with  his  family  he 
traveled  in  state  like  a  royal  personage;  and  by  no  means 
could  his  expenses  equal  his  income.  Yet  even  with  this 
huge  accumulation  he  did  not  stop;  when  he  went  abroad 
he  was  always  in  touch  with  his  schemes  to  make  more 
money,  and  when  he  was  at  home  he  arose  early  and 
toiled  late  that  he  might  make  more  and  more.  It  may 
be  believed  that  he  never  had  a  joy  in  his  life  except 
the  reflection  that  he  was  daily  adding  to  the  vast  store 
of  money  he  could  not  use.  He  lived  in  a  world  full  of 
beautiful  things,  and  according  to  those  that  knew  him 
best  he  never  once  experienced  the  splendid  and  divine 
emotions  of  beauty.  I  have  seen  him  in  the  midst  of  some 
of  the  most  gorgeous  scenery  of  the  Alps,  and  I  am  quite 
certain  that  he  saw  none  of  it.  His  eyes  were  always 
turned  inward,  and  all  day  long  (if  reports  spoke  true 
of  him)  his  thought  dwelt  upon  that  sordid  battlefield 
and  the  means  by  which  he  could  wrest  from  other  men 
more  of  the  substance  that  he  did  not  need.  All  men 
agreed  that  he  had  great  capacity  and  a  marvelous  power 
of  concentration,  and  the  only  purpose  to  which  he  ever 
gave  his  powers  was  in  securing  things  useless  to  him. 

He  died  and  hired  eulogy  balked  before  the  record  of 
his  career.  It  could  be  said  of  him  that  he  was  the  type 
of  the  successful  American  business  man,  that  he  had  risen 
from  obscure  poverty  to  eminence  and  colossal  wealth, 
that  with  skill  he  had  managed  his  own  affairs  and  added 
daily  to  his  fortune.  No  one  could  suggest  wherein  he 
had  been  of  the  least  use  to  his  generation.  He  had  taken 
no  interest  in  public  affairs,  he  had  cared  nothing  about 

250 


A  Plea  for  the  Rich 

the  community,  he  had  added  not  one  contribution  to  the 
world's  store  of  the  beautiful  nor  even  of  the  useful,  he 
had  never  lifted  a  hand  for  the  Common  Good  nor  given 
to  it  one  thought,  in  no  conceivable  respect  was  the  world 
one  whit  the  better  for  the  life  that  had  been  bestowed  upon 
him.  He  had  not  even  been  a  good  citizen,  he  had  not 
even  the  common  virtue  of  patriotism.  The  chief  cor- 
poration from  which  he  had  derived  his  great  wealth  had 
been  for  many  years  the  greatest  of  all  sources  of  corrup- 
tion in  American  public  affairs.  It  had  notoriously  defied 
the  law,  bribed  legislators,  bought  aldermen,  placed  its 
attorneys  on  the  bench,  influenced  Congress,  perverted  jus- 
tice, and  corruptly  manipulated  political  parties.  More 
than  all  other  influences  together  it  had  lowered  the  tone 
and  soiled  the  purity  of  public  life.  Against  these  prac- 
tices this  man  had  never  protested.  He  had  shared  the 
huge  profits  that  this  lawless  corporation  gathered,  and 
whether  its  general  policy  were  or  were  not  of  his  con- 
ceiving, he  could  not  have  failed  to  know  that  it  was 
criminal,  corrupt,  and  piratical. 

On  a  dispassionate  review  of  this  man's  life  there  ap- 
peared such  a  melancholy  waste,  and  such  a  hideous  pursuit 
of  Dead  Sea  fruit,  that  his  story  seemed  worth  for  his 
own  sake  only  infinite  pity.  But  one  good  thing  could 
be  said  of  him:  he  had  pride,  he  was  not  indifferent  to 
reputation.  A  former  associate  of  his  turned  upon  him 
and  revealed  something  of  his  methods  and  savage  fury 
in  the  insatiate  grabbing  of  money.  The  revelations 
profoundly  impressed  the  public,  and  under  the  manifesta- 
tions of  general  disapproval  the  man's  health  and  spirits 
broke,  and  until  he  died  he  never  regained  his  old  assur- 
ance. Something  tragic  pertained  to  his  story.  Beyond 
a   doubt,   he   had   an   excellent   mind,   equipped   to   be   of 

251 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

service  to  his  times:  he  went  through  life  without  one 
worthy  or  rational  achievement,  and  he  died  so  miserably 
that  even  his  enemies  could  hardly  exult  over  his  fall. 
The  sum  of  all  his  years  was  a  sum  of  nothing;  the  very 
tramp  that  lives  from  hand  to  mouth  seemed  no  more  of 
a  failure  and  no  less  likely  to  be  remembered. 

Here  was  one  type  of  a  certain  condition.  A  few  months 
later  there  died  a  man  that  as  aptly  illustrated  another 
phase.  The  first  man  having  a  great  fortune  had  bent 
all  his  life  and  energies  to  acquire  more:  the  second  man 
having  a  great  fortune  set  out  early  in  life  to  gather 
enjoyment  from  what  he  had.  Conceiving  his  great  for- 
tune to  be  ample,  he  took  no  part  in  business,  wronged 
no  man,  and  wrested  no  more  money  from  the  unfortunate. 
Social  amusements  and  social  distinction  were  the  pursuits 
of  his  life;  he  followed  them  with  undeviating  loyalty; 
he  was  socially  one  of  the  eminent  persons  of  New  York. 
He  was  charitable  and  generous,  and  what  is  called  "  a 
good  fellow."  And  when  he  came  to  die  eulogy  balked 
as  in  the  other  case;  there  was  nothing  to  be  said  of  him 
except  that  he  had  lived  and  was  now  dead.  For  a  time 
this  clay  had  moved  and  been  animated,  and  was  now 
cold  like  any  other  clod.  The  funeral  was  a  curious 
sight.  No  one  seemed  to  be  sorry;  there  was  nothing  to 
be  sorry  about;  no  one  had  cared  very  much  for  the  dead 
man,  and  no  one  had  cherished  towards  him  the  least 
ill-will;  he  was  just  "a  good  fellow"  that  had  lived  and 
died  and  left  no  sign.  The  fruit  of  the  life  that  had  been 
intrusted  to  him  was  some  temporary  amusement  for  him- 
self; he  had  had  what  is  called  "  fun."  Probably  no  human 
being  was  the  worse  because  he  had  lived,  but  assuredly 
none  was  the  better.  The  world  had  no  profit  of  him; 
he  had  left  nothing,  he  had  enjoyed  much,  and  even  those 

252 


A  Plea  for  the  Rich 

of  his  own  class  and  kind  that  gathered  at  his  funeral 
seemed  to  feel  that  here  was  a  life  wasted.  Because  at 
the  grim  end  of  all  there  is  always  the  sense  of  an  account- 
ing; let  the  life  be  as  merry  as  life  can  be,  there  is  always 
at  the  grave  the  idea  that  a  balance  must  be  struck,  and 
the  showing  of  this  balance  sheet  was  not  edifying. 

And  I  am  not  quite  so  sure  about  the  fun;  I  am  obliged 
to  think  that  is  much  overrated.  Some  years  before  this 
man  died  he  had  a  hand  in  an  entertainment  provided 
among  his  own  social  caste  called  "  a  vegetable  party." 
It  was  nothing  much;  it  has  since,  I  believe,  been  rather 
eclipsed  by  "  monkey  dinners,"  "  horseback  dinners,"  and 
other  amusements  of  polite  society.  The  ladies  and  gentle- 
men attended  in  the  characters  of  vegetables,  that  was  all. 
One  went  dressed  to  portray  a  carrot,  one  to  portray  a 
turnip,  one  a  cabbage,  one  a  squash,  one  a  parsnip,  and 
so  on.  As  I  say,  it  was  not  of  any  great  importance, 
but  some  of  the  newspapers  sneered  at  the  idea  of  adults 
finding  entertainment  in  a  way  so  puerile,  and  I  once  made 
to  this  man  of  whom  I  am  now  writing  a  remark  in  the 
like  vein.     He  said: 

"  Of  course,  I  know  it  seems  silly,  but  it  has  its  uses. 
You  can't  think  what  a  relief  it  is  to  me.  I  have  nothing 
to  do  with  my  time,  and  nothing  to  take  an  interest  in. 
Now,  to  design  my  costume  for  this  fool  thing  gives  me 
occupation,  and  to  wear  it  is  something  to  look  forward  to. 
It's  a  change  from  the  monotony  of  everyday  life.  It's 
a  misfortune  to  have  nothing  to  do.  I  don't  know  how 
to  put  in  my  time.  You  get  tired  of  everything  soon  or 
late.  You'll  say,  '  Why  don't  you  travel  ?  '  Well,  I've 
been  everywhere,  until  one  place  is  just  like  another.  You 
get  bored  everywhere,  when  you  haven't  anything  to  do. 
To  tell  you  the  truth,  I'm  glad  of  a  chance  to  dress  up 

253 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

like  a  carrot  and  prance  around.  It's  something  to  think 
about." 

I  omit  from  the  present  consideration  the  scandals  that 
seem  to  be  so  common  among  people  of  this  caste;  it  ap- 
pears that,  having  nothing  to  do  and  no  rational  interest 
in  life,  they  are  drawn  inevitably  into  vice;  but  therein, 
of  course,  they  chiefly  injure  themselves.  I  pass  to  another 
phase  of  their  condition  that  is  of  graver  interest  to  man- 
kind. A  member  of  the  British  parliament,  a  justly  famous 
observer  of  men  and  manners  in  many  countries,  told  me 
once  that  of  all  the  persons  he  had  met  in  the  course  of 
a  long  life  the  most  insolent,  the  most  intensely  disagree- 
able, the  most  arrogant,  and  the  most  overbearing  were 
sons  of  American  millionaires.  He  said  that  he  traveled 
about  the  world  year  in  and  year  out,  holding  agreeable 
intercourse  with  men  of  all  ranks  in  all  nations,  but  there 
was  no  such  thing  as  enduring  the  society  of  a  young 
American  nabob.  After  long  experience  he  had  come  to 
avoid  instinctively  all  persons  of  this  class;  but  sometimes, 
on  the  Continent  especially,  one  could  not  prevent  con- 
tact with  them,  and  whenever  he  saw  them  at  close  range 
he  was  convinced  that  they  were  the  most  repulsive  per- 
sons on  earth  and  some  of  the  most  dangerous.  In 
his  reading  about  the  French  revolution  he  had  met 
with  no  characters  among  the  nobles  of  the  old  regime 
that  seemed  to  him  of  so  intolerable  an  arrogance,  for 
these  were  not  content  to  be  arrogant  to  persons  they 
casually  met  but  went  out  to  seek  victims  on  whom  they 
could  exhaust  their  arrogance. 

Something  of  the  same  impression  is  no  doubt  familiar  to 
every  American  that  is  accustomed  to  note  the  significance 
of  things.  Mr.  David  Graham  Phillips  has  made  a  true 
and  admirable  record  of  it  in  his  "  The  Second  Genera- 

254- 


A  Plea  for  the  Rich 

tion."  The  story  usually  has  about  the  same  sequence. 
First,  there  is  the  young  man  starting  forth  in  life,  very 
poor,  but  determined  to  be  rich.  By  methods  usually 
illegal  and  always  dishonest  he  gathers  wealth.  He  mar- 
ries and  begets  children,  and  still  labors  incessantly  to 
gather  more  riches.  While  his  children  are  growing  up 
they  are  surrounded  with  every  accompaniment  of  luxury 
and  great  wealth.  They  go  to  exclusive  schools,  or  they 
have  private  tutors  at  home;  they  associate  only  with  the 
children  of  other  rich  men;  from  their  first  consciousness 
they  are  taught  that  they  belong  to  a  class  better  than 
common  people.  Their  fathers'  successes  they  learn  to 
regard  as  the  certain  evidence  of  his  superior  quality;  his 
wealth  is  a  badge  of  aristocracy;  they  learn  to  despise  all 
poorer  men,  and  acquire  an  instinct  of  snobbishness  the 
like  of  which  is  not  now  to  be  found  in  any  other  part 
of  this  globe.  An  Indian  maharajah  with  a  hundred  thou- 
sand subjects  and  ropes  of  pearls  is  literally  a  broad  demo- 
crat compared  with  the  typical  son  of  an  American  mil- 
lionaire. 

These  young  men  and  young  women,  having  completed 
their  education,  go  forth  into  a  world  of  their  own.  It 
never  occurs  to  them  that  the  money  that  supports  their 
state  was  wrung  from  the  toiling  masses  they  contemn, 
and,  of  course,  it  never  occurs  to  them  that  they  have 
any  duties  to  the  world  they  live  in.  Their  fathers,  having 
usually  a  recollection  of  their  own  humble  origin  and  a 
sense  of  the  manner  in  which  their  money  has  been  won, 
retain  both  instinctively  and  from  policy  a  great  deal  of 
democratic  bearing.  They  know  quite  well  that  if  the 
people  had  ever  awakened  to  the  true  meaning  of  privilege 
there  would  have  been  very  few  great  fortunes  in  America; 
and  they  also  know  that  at  any  time  the  people  may  have 

255 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

such  an  awakening,  and  how  bad  that  would  be  for  fortune- 
making.  Hence,  they  are  careful  to  be  accessible  to  em- 
ployees and  to  associate  on  terms  of  equality  with  men 
less  fortunate.  But  their  sons  have  no  such  impulse.  They 
never  move  beyond  the  circle  of  their  own  caste,  they 
marry  in  their  own  caste,  they  have  no  interest  outside 
of  that  caste,  and  for  the  whole  great  mass  of  poorer  men 
they  feel  only  contempt  or  hatred. 

Now,  to  these  facts  pertain  two  observations.  First, 
the  power  that  these  men  are  daily  inheriting  is  colossal. 
The  process  of  centralization  has  brought  so  many  in- 
dustries under  the  control  of  a  few  that  the  employ- 
ment, and  therefore  the  existence,  of  millions  of  workers 
depends  upon  the  whim  or  caprice  of  a  handful  of  in- 
dividuals. The  same  men  that  control  most  of  the  rail- 
roads of  the  United  States  also  control  the  entire  iron 
and  steel  industry,  the  oil  industry,  a  great  many  banks, 
and  a  steadily  increasing  number  of  other  enterprises. 
Of  course,  these  men  for  a  whim  or  a  caprice  are  not 
likely  to  suspend  or  to  interrupt  any  of  these  industries, 
but  they  can  at  any  time  deprive  of  employment  any  man 
or  group  of  men ;  which,  in  modern  conditions,  is  equivalent 
to  the  power  of  life  and  death.  The  mere  possession, 
also,  of  the  channels  of  capital  that  are  directed  through 
the  banks  is  a  power  more  formidable  than  any  other  now 
on  earth,  except  only  the  control  of  the  press. 

These  great  powers  are  now  in  the  hands  of  men  of 
the  first  generation.  They  will  presently  pass  into  the 
hands  of  men  of  the  second  generation.  The  sons  will 
inherit  what  the  fathers  have  made.  The  fathers  have 
still  some  democratic  sympathies  and  reminiscences;  the 
sons  have  none. 

The  reason  why  these  sons  and  no  other  persons  will 

256 


A  Plea  for  the  Rich 

succeed  to  the  control  of  these  great  powers  is  because, 
as  previously  noted,  the  process  of  consolidation  has  reached 
a  point  where  there  is  no  longer  a  door  to  fortune  open 
to  any  person  outside  of  the  present  fortunate  caste.  This 
seems  an  extravagant  statement,  because  the  belief  that 
our  country  is  the  land  of  free  opportunity  is  still  almost 
universal  among  us  and  we  are  loath  to  admit  the  great 
changes  of  the  last  few  years.  Yet,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
it  is  no  longer  possible  for  a  poor  man  to  accumulate  a 
great  fortune  in  America.  Instead  of  every  man  having 
the  opportunity  to  get  rich,  no  man  has  now  the  oppor- 
tunity to  get  rich  except  by  gambling  or  rarely  by  specu- 
lation. No  new  great  fortunes  are  being  formed  to-day, 
and  we  may  safely  say  that  none  has  been  started  in  the 
last  ten  years.  The  conditions  in  which  a  boy  could  start 
with  nothing  and  become  a  multimillionaire  have  vanished 
in  this  country  and  will  not  return.  How  shall  the  poor 
boy  now  start  upon  the  road  to  fortune?  Which  way 
shall  he  take?  Shall  he  enter  a  store  and  plan  to  become, 
like  A.  T.  Stewart  or  Marshall  Field,  a  great  merchant? 
The  great  stores  are  now  department  stores  owned  by 
companies  affiliated  with  the  Central  Interests.  Shall  he 
develop  an  industry  as  John  D.  Rockefeller  developed  oil? 
To  do  that  requires  money,  and  the  money  supply  is  owned 
by  the  Central  Interests,  which  reserve  all  profitable  in- 
dustries for  themselves.  Shall  he  develop  a  railroad  enter- 
prise as  Mr.  Hill  developed  the  present  Great  Northern? 
No  man  can  now  build  a  mile  of  new  railroad  nor  acquire 
a  mile  of  old  except  by  the  consent  of  the  Central  Interests 
that  control  all.  Shall  he  hit  upon  a  great  invention  as 
Mr.  Westinghouse  invented  the  airbrake?  Here  again, 
his  invention  is  useless  without  capital,  and  all  the  capital 
is  controlled  by  the  Central   Interests,  who  will  take  the 

257 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

invention  for  themselves  if  it  be  for  their  benefit  or  sup- 
press it  if  it  threaten  their  profits.  Shall  he  go  into 
manufacturing  and  seek  to  be  an  independent  proprietor 
content  with  a  modest  fortune?  In  practically  all  lines 
the  independent  manufacturer  has  been  absorbed  by  or 
is  vanishing  before  a  trust.  Shall  he  try  to  operate  in 
real  estate?  In  nine  cases  in  ten  the  future  of  his  real 
estate  investment  depends  not  upon  his  judgment  and 
foresight,  but  upon  the  movements  and  decisions  of  the 
Central  Interests.  Shall  he  go  into  banking  and  try  to 
become  a  great  financier?  In  all  the  country  there  is  no 
great  bank  uncontrolled  by  the  Central  Interests. 

He  has,  therefore,  if  he  be  ambitious  and  eager  for  suc- 
cess, the  prospect  of  but  one  career.  He  can  be  a  hired 
man  for  the  Interests.  He  can  enter  the  law  and  get 
large  fees  for  showing  the  Interests  how  they  can  evade 
the  statutes.  Or  he  can  manage  something  for  the  Interests 
and  earn  a  considerable  salary.  Otherwise,  he  must  be 
content  to  be  a  small  tradesman,  an  artisan  working  for 
wages,  a  clerk,  or  a  professional  man  scrambling  for  a 
livelihood.  Or  he  can  be  a  gambler.  Gambling  is  always 
open  to  ambitious  youth. 

It  is  executive  work  or  legal  service  for  the  Interests 
that  is  now  engaging  the  best  minds,  and  will  more  and 
more  engage  them.  The  great  railroad  systems,  banks, 
mills,  factories,  foundries,  mines,  insurance  companies, 
lighting  enterprises,  street  railroads,  water  powers,  steam- 
ship lines,  department  stores,  restaurants,  drug  stores, 
groceries,  packing  houses,  farms,  and  other  properties 
owned  by  the  Central  Interests  must  be  managed.  Men 
must  be  had  to  manage  them.  But  they  will  be  men  hired 
for  salary.  They  will  not  own  the  property  they  manage, 
and   will   have  no   chance   to   own   it,   and   however   large 

258 


A  Plea  for  the  Rich 

their  salaries  may  seem  when  compared  with  the  wages 
of  artisans,  their  salaries  will  never  be  any  approach  to 
the  great  fortune-making  of  other  days. 

I  am  quite  well  aware  of  the  belief  held  by  some  ob- 
servers that  the  extravagant  habits  and  mental  incapacity 
of  the  second  generation  will  scatter  the  fortunes  gathered 
by  the  first  and  restore  the  distribution  of  wealth.  "  Only 
three  generations/'  men  say,  "  from  shirtsleeves  to  shirt- 
sleeves." It  is  singular  that  this  opinion  should  survive  in 
the  face  of  innumerable  demonstrations  that  it  is  not  justi- 
fied. No  longer  does  the  second  generation  dissipate  its 
wealth;  in  truth  it  cannot.  The  size  of  the  great  for- 
tune is  too  great  to  be  much  affected  by  even  the  mon- 
strous extravagance  of  the  traditional  American  heir;  more- 
over, the  bulk  of  the  fortune  is  so  invested  that  it  cannot 
be  dissipated,  but  continues  to  multiply  so  fast  that  its 
income  cannot  be  spent.  You  will  find  it  difficult  to  specify 
a  great  American  fortune  that  has  been  dissipated  by 
its  heirs,  or  one,  in  fact,  that  has  not  grown  in  spite  of 
incompetence.  The  Vanderbilt  fortune,  for  instance,  is 
now  probably  fifty  times  as  great  as  it  was  when  Com- 
modore Vanderbilt  died.  Although  it  has  been  shared  by 
many  heirs,  the  total  bulk  and  each  individual  share  have 
continued  to  increase.  The  Astor  fortune  has  steadily 
mounted  until  now  it  has  attained  to  an  overshadowing 
size.  The  Gould  fortune  is  certainly  much  greater  than 
it  was  at  the  death  of  Mr.  Jay  Gould,  although  the  courts 
have  been  regaled  with  accounts  of  what  might  be  called  the 
desperate  efforts  of  one  of  the  heirs  to  expend  his  patri- 
mony. Mr.  Rockefeller's  son  will  assuredly  be  unable, 
even  if  he  should  desire,  to  waste  the  colossal  Rocke- 
feller fortune ;  no  one  supposes  that  young  Mr.  Rogers  will 
scatter  the  Rogers  millions;  the  Whitney  fortune  remains 

259 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

intact;  the  Belmonts  are  all  very  rich  men;  Mr.  Morgan's 
estate  will  be  handed  down  from  generation  to  generation. 
Some  of  the  old  New  York  fortunes,  like  the  Lispenard 
and  the  Goelet,  have  existed  for  a  century  or  more.  When 
Marshall  Field  died  his  fortune  was  so  left  that  at  the 
expiration  of  the  trust  it  will  have  become,  if  only  an 
average  rate  of  increase  be  maintained,  five  billion  dollars, 
which  is  more  than  all  the  money  in  the  United  States. 
Mr.  Armour's  son  did  not  scatter  the  Armour  millions, 
but  has  greatly  increased  them.  Mr.  Gustavus  Swift's 
sons  carry  on  his  business  with  undiminished  success.  Mr. 
J.  J.  Hill  has  a  capable  son  already  in  charge  of  the 
great  Hill  interests.  Evidently  the  second  generation  that 
is  to  return  to  the  public  the  great  fortune  withdrawn 
from  it  is  a  pure  myth. 

What  does  happen  sometimes  is  the  loss  of  the  immediate 
and  active  direction  of  the  property  that  made  the  fortune. 
Thus,  the  Vanderbilts  no  longer  control  the  New  York 
Central,  by  the  scandalous  manipulation  of  which  the 
Vanderbilt  fortune  was  created,  but  that  has  not  affected 
the  Vanderbilt  incomes  nor  in  any  way  benefited  the 
community,  which  furnishes  the  interest  on  the  Vanderbilt 
stocks  and  bonds.  Within  the  last  few  years  Mr.  George 
Gould  has  ceased  to  be  reckoned  as  one  of  the  powers 
that  control  the  railroad  business  of  the  United  States, 
but  his  retirement  has  not  affected  the  Gould  fortunes. 
All  of  these  great  fortunes  are  now  enduring  institutions, 
and  the  only  change  that  has  been  or,  in  the  present 
organization  of  society,  can  be  observed  in  them  is  that 
they  become  more  efficient  as  suction  pumps  to  gather  the 
country's  available  wealth  into  the  hands  of  a  few  and  to 
leave  the  many  with  small  means  and  a  constantly  diminish- 
ing share  of  opportunity. 

260 


A  Plea  for  the  Rich 

The  point  then  is  that  since  money  is  only  another  name 
for  power,  the  preponderance  of  power  in  America  is 
before  long  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  men  of  reactionary 
instinct  and  more  extreme  and  more  truly  aristocratic 
tendencies  than  any  other  class  on  the  earth;  and  the  alarm 
of  the  British  member  of  Parliament  as  he  contemplated 
this  fact  seems  not  in  the  least  unreasonable.  Thoughtful 
men  of  all  shades  of  fundamental  faith  have  agreed  that 
the  existing  conditions  cannot  be  allowed  to  remain  un- 
changed. Mr.  Rockefeller  tells  us  that  in  the  last  twelve 
years  he  has  given  no  direct  attention  to  business,  and 
yet,  if  current  report  be  true,  in  that  time,  without  his 
direction  or  effort,  his  fortune  has  more  than  doubled. 
If  it  shall  continue  to  grow  at  the  present  ratio,  within 
an  appreciable  time  it  will  absorb  all  the  wealth  in  the 
United  States;  for  one  can  demonstrate  without  difficulty 
that  its  present  rate  of  increase  is  greater  than  the  rate 
of  increase  of  the  total  wealth  of  the  nation.  This,  of 
course,  would  be  an  intolerable  outcome,  and  no  doubt 
the  imminent  prospect  of  some  such  result  spurred  Mr. 
Roosevelt  to  demand  income  and  inheritance  taxes.  But 
those  that  profit  by  existing  connections  will  bitterly  oppose 
any  interference  with  their  privileges;  that  is  a  cleavage 
already  plainly  evident,  for  such  persons  have  so  far 
defeated  every  effort  to  modify  these  conditions;  and  it  is 
well  to  contemplate  the  kind  of  opposition  we  may  expect 
from  the  Second  Generation. 

But  aside  from  all  this,  which  is  only  one  of  the  evil 
products  of  the  present  system  of  Society,  we  ought  to 
abolish  that  system  for  the  benefit  of  those  that  profit 
by  it  as  well  as  for  the  sake  of  those  that  it  impoverishes. 
The  life  spent  in  the  pursuit  of  gain  is  a  very  pitiable 
life.     Not  so  pitiable  as  the  life  spent  in  drudging  toil, 

261 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

but  still  pitiable  and  wasted.  This  life  of  ours  is  so 
capable  of  infinitely  better  things,  the  struggle  of  man 
with  man  to  wrench  away  the  fruits  of  the  earth  that 
should  be  for  all  is  so  vile  and  so  degrading,  the  callous 
heart  is  so  great  a  misfortune,  the  spirit  within  that  is 
strangled  by  greed  is  so  naturally  fine,  the  inner  eyes 
that  greed  blinds  might  see  so  much,  that  the  life  given 
over  to  aggrandizement  ought  to  fill  every  observer  with 
commiseration.  We  pity  the  poor  prostitute  driven  by 
the  present  system  down  the  slope  to  perdition,  and  we 
pity  the  tenement  house  family  dispossessed  for  lack  of 
rent  money.  We  might  well  pity  also  the  rich  idler  that 
can  find  no  use  of  his  faculties  above  dressing  to  look  like  a 
carrot,  or  the  money-grubber  that  wastes  his  life  in  despoil- 
ing his  fellow-men.  It  is  true  that  the  rich  idler  and 
the  money-grubber  are  in  a  measure  voluntary  sufferers, 
and  the  prostitute  and  the  tenement  family  have  no  re- 
course. It  is  also  true  that  the  wretched  state  of  the  poor 
is  a  hard,  material  fact  of  the  first  importance  to  the 
future  of  the  race,  while  the  wasted  lives  of  the  rich  are 
for  merely  sentimental  pity,  and  compared  with  the  vast 
numbers  of  the  poor  the  rich  are  so  few  they  are  not 
worth  thinking  about  until  we  shall  have  dealt  adequately 
with  the  overwhelming  problem  of  insufficiency.  Yet,  in  a 
broad  view,  and  as  a  matter  of  principle,  a  wasted  life 
is  a  wasted  life,  whether  of  poor  or  rich,  and  the  proper 
function  of  organized  Society  is  to  prevent  the  waste  of 
life.  In  truth,  the  joyless  dweller  in  a  slum  tenement 
and  the  rich  idler  and  rake  are  alike  products  of  the 
one  vile  system  of  Capitalism.  So  long  as  that  system 
endures  there  will  be  for  men  no  object  in  life  but  gain; 
the  poor  must  center  all  thought  and  life  upon  gaining 
daily   bread,  the   fortunate   will   center   all   thought   upon 

262 


A  Plea  for  the  Rich 

increasing  their  store  or  live  in  intellectual  sloth  and  de- 
generacy. Both  results  deny  the  godlike  possibilities  of 
man,  which  find  their  highest  realization  in  Brotherhood 
and  Service. 

Here  we  might  do  well  to  consider  for  a  moment  an- 
other foolish  trick  of  ours  in  relation  to  these  matters. 
I  mean  the  habit  (for  which  we  have,  it  is  true,  eminent 
authority)  of  turning  upon  and  rending  the  men  that  are 
conspicuous  examples  of  the  fruits  of  the  present  system. 
"  Malefactors  of  great  wealth,"  we  are  pleased  to  call 
them.  Well — but  why?  Why  malefactors?  Do  but  think 
for  a  moment  how  poor  a  spectacle  we  make  of  ourselves 
when  we  give  way  to  this  form  of  hysteria.  Under  the 
present  system  we  have  set  up  a  certain  object  of  life 
and  a  certain  standard  of  achievement.  The  object  is 
aggrandizement;  the  standard  is  the  extent  to  which  ag- 
grandizement has  been  carried.  Upon  him  that  has  grubbed 
much  money  we  bestow  much  honor;  upon  him  that  has 
grubbed  the  most  money  we  bestow  the  most  honor.  In 
every  walk  of  life  the  amount  of  honor  we  bestow  is 
apportioned  to  the  amount  of  money  grubbed.  Nor  do  we 
ordinarily  weigh  the  manner  of  the  grubbing.  "  To  get 
money  by  whatsoever  means  "  has  been  our  national  motto. 
What  should  we  expect? 

To  this  pursuit  all  our  social  arrangements  openly  or 
insidiously  contribute.  Our  schools,  and  especially  our 
colleges,  hold  up  the  business  career  and  the  gaining  of 
wealth  as  the  proper  avenues  of  ambition  and  utter  no 
word  of  warning  against  the  inevitable  consequences.  Most 
of  our  colleges  fawn  in  a  sickening  way  at  the  feet  of 
wealth  and  habitually  laud  the  "  captains  of  industry," 
whose  hands  are  stained  with  blood  and  mire.  Who  shall 
deny    that   this    is    so?      Nay,    they    do    themselves    often 

263 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

give  examples  of  the  true  business  instinct.  Many  a  col- 
lege president  and  college  faculty  in  America  would  be 
glad  to  abolish  the  brutal  and  demoralizing  game  of 
football,  and  yet  maintain  it  against  their  consciences  be- 
cause they  believe  that  a  strong  or  winning  football  team 
attracts  students.  From  their  earliest  years  our  children 
are  taught  that  business  success,  wealth,  the  piling  of  dollar 
upon  dollar,  constitutes  life;  to  honor  wealth,  to  give  it 
place  above  service,  knowledge,  discovery,  scholarship,  art, 
is  therefore  the  national  instinct.  Again,  what  should  we 
expect  ? 

Under  this  influence  men  that  are  now  old  started  out  in 
life  with  the  one  ambition  to  win  the  prizes  that  we 
held  out  for  the  man  of  wealth.  With  our  incessant 
applause  they  grubbed  and  grabbed  until  they  reached 
the  glittering  pinnacle  at  the  top  of  the  social  pyramid. 
They  were  faithful  in  all  respects  to  the  code  of  the 
present  system;  they  observed  the  rules  of  competitive 
warfare;  they  did  exactly  what  all  others  do  under  that 
system,  only  they  did  it  more  assiduously  and  more  ex- 
tensively. They  grubbed  and  grabbed;  they  wrested 
money  from  the  fingers  and  bread  from  the  lips  of  others ; 
they  trampled  their  competitors  to  death  or  led  them  into 
cunningly  devised  ambushes;  they  toiled  and  schemed,  early 
and  late,  with  zeal  and  fervor;  they  threw  themselves  upon 
what  the  baccalaureate  habitually  calls  "  the  battlefield 
of  life,"  and  wrought  there  in  the  manner  of  savages, 
exactly  as  we  had  taught  them. 

And  now  when  under  the  encouragement,  and  even  the 
mandate  of  this  our  system,  they  have  won  the  victory,  we 
are  invited  to  turn  upon  them  and  prosecute  them  as  "  male- 
factors of  great  wealth  " — for  doing  exactly  what  Society 
told  them  to  do. 

264 


A  Plea  for  the  Rich 

It  is,  of  course,  hard  for  some  of  us  to  contemplate  a 
career  like  that  of  John  D.  Rockefeller  without  an  impulse 
of  wrath,  and  impossible  to  contemplate  it  or  him  without 
loathing.  But  even  John  D.  Rockefeller  is  a  mere  creature 
of  the  system,  and  its  most  perfect  and  ideal  exponent. 
If  we  believe  in  competition  at  all,  why  berate  the  man 
that  has  simply  carried  the  competitive  idea  to  its  logical 
conclusion?  This  is  the  perfect  example  of  that  survival 
of  the  fittest  that  is  the  sole  foundation  of  the  competitive 
system.  Why  object  to  him?  He  was  the  fittest;  he  had 
bigger  paws  and  longer  arms  and  sharper  claws  than  any 
other  gorilla  in  the  jungle;  therefore,  he  had  an  unassail- 
able right  to  all  that  he  could  grab,  and  if  we  are  to  main- 
tain the  system,  instead  of  denouncing  this  man  we  should 
eulogize  him  as  the  system's  best  product. 

Similar  observations  apply  to  all  the  other  like  "  male- 
factors "  whom  we  are  invited  to  pursue  with  legal  venge- 
ance. Why  pursue  them?  None  of  them  has  done  any- 
thing not  sanctioned  and  approved  by  the  system  under 
which  we  operate.  "  They  have  broken  the  laws,"  says 
an  eminent  authority.  Why,  to  be  sure.  And  if  you  were 
to  put  in  jail  all  the  men  that  under  the  present  system 
have  broken  the  laws  you  would  depopulate  some  of  our 
most  admired  regions.  Take  all  the  laws  that  are  vio- 
lated by  the  men  that  practice  underbilling,  that  seize  the 
public  land  under  the  sidewalks,  that  fence  in  the  public 
domain,  that  illegally  manage  their  banks,  that  sell  goods 
and  obtain  money  under  false  pretenses,  that  bribe  legis- 
lators and  aldermen,  that  issue  fraudulent  warehouse  re- 
ceipts, that  make  and  sell  poisons  for  patent  medicines, 
that  steal  the  public  streets,  that  adulterate  food.  What 
shall  we  do  about  all  these  cases?  Is  it  not  evident  that 
under  the  present  system  the  breaking  of  laws  and  the 

265 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

perpetrating  of  fraud  are  inevitable?  Then  why  turn 
upon  one  creature  of  this  system  and  make  him  a  scape- 
goat of  our  wrath  if  we  are  to  continue  the  system  of 
which  he  is  merely  a  product? 

Of  course,  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  the  laws  nullified 
by  Mr.  Rockefeller  and  his  class  are  enforced  with  great 
rigor  upon  men  less  fortunate.  For  the  theft  of  a  public 
franchise  worth  a  hundred  million  dollars  no  man  has 
ever  been  sent  to  jail,  while  every  day  men  are  punished 
in  our  courts  for  stealing  bread  when  they  are  hungry. 
We  had  in  New  York  some  years  ago  a  case  in  which 
it  was  admitted  that  five  wealthy  men  had  stolen  about 
$600,000,  and  all  efforts  to  secure  the  indictment  of  these 
men  failed,  although  scores  of  men  were  being  indicted, 
convicted,  and  sent  to  prison  for  stealing  a  few  cents. 
And  this  state  of  affairs  is,  of  course,  the  hardest  of  all 
to  bear  with  equanimity  and  the  only  excuse  (although  it 
is  seldom  urged)  for  pursuing  the  "  malefactors  of  great 
wealth."  Yet,  even  this  monstrous  injustice  is  only  a 
product  of  our  system,  and  one  for  which  there  is  no 
remedy  so  long  as  we  maintain  the  system.  In  no  corner 
of  this  world  is  the  rich  offender  punished  like  the  poor, 
nor  by  any  possibility  can  there  be  justice  on  earth  so 
long  as  we  hold  to  a  social  organization  that  puts  a  premium 
upon  greed  and  transforms  cruelty  into  a  virtue.  And 
here,  as  before,  I  invite  you  that  like  the  system  to  like 
also  its  products. 

It  is  one  of  the  innumerable  curses  of  this  Capitalism 
"  dripping  with  blood  "  that  it  totally  reverses  thus  the 
normal  value  of  life.  Aggrandizement  is  not  normally  an 
object  of  human  endeavor;  selfishness  and  indifference  to 
the  rights  of  others  are  not  part  of  the  normal  state  of 
man.     Only   Capitalism  makes  them  so,  exactly  as   Capi- 

266 


A  Plea  for  the  Rich 

talism,  turning  men  into  beasts,  pays  the  greatest  honor 
to  force  and  brutality  and  the  least  to  Use.  An  heir 
of  one  of  the  great  fortunes,  lolling  about  the  world  in 
a  steam  yacht,  employing  his  time  in  the  seducing  of 
his  friends'  wives,  or  with  one  of  his  mistresses  scattering 
on  the  tables  of  Monte  Carlo  the  tribute  exacted  by  watered 
railroad  stocks,  is  of  no  use  in  the  world;  he  is  doing 
nothing  that  society  needs  to  have  done.  The  man  that 
digs  in  a  water  trench  is  of  great  use;  he  is  doing  some- 
thing that  society  needs  to  have  done.  Under  the  existing 
system  the  idler  at  Monte  Carlo  has  great  honor,  the 
digger  in  the  water  trench  has  none.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  digger  in  the  water  trench,  no  matter  what  his 
condition,  hard-handed,  ill-clothed,  denied  by  the  existing 
system  his  birthright  of  education  and  sufficiency,  rude  of 
speech,  and  ungainly  of  manner  is  infinitely  more  than 
the  other  deserving  of  the  world's  respect  and  of  the 
world's  rewards.  This  perversion  is  inseparable  from 
Capitalism,  which  offers  only  unreasonable  and  unworthy 
objects  to  life.  The  life  of  man,  if  deprived  of  the  joys 
of  the  sense  of  Brotherhood  and  the  sense  of  Use,  is  more 
melancholy  than  his  death,  and  there  appears  now  from 
any  survey  of  the  world's  progress  the  fact  that  the  waste 
of  life  is  as  unnecessary  as  it  is  hideous.  For  of  all 
the  indictments  of  this  wretched  system  the  most  grievous 
is  that  the  world  has  no  need  of  it.  Everything  the  world 
needs  can  be  better  provided  without  Capitalism  than  with 
it,  and  for  the  whole  system  that  is  thus  dark  with  crime 
and  productive  everywhere  of  fathomless  misery  there  ap- 
pears on  impartial  examination  not  one  good  excuse. 

But,  of  course,  if  it  is  to  be  upheld  by  force  and  not 
by  reason,  and  if,  in  the  interest  of  its  beneficiaries,  armies 
and   the   police    are   to    maintain   it    against   the    will    of 

267 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

majorities,  that  is  another  matter.  Such  conditions  seem 
on  the  face  of  the  proposition  extremely  improbable,  and 
yet  we  cannot,  unfortunately,  be  sure  that  they  are  im- 
possible. In  the  winter  of  1907-8  the  unemployed  men 
in  New  York  City  numbered  something  like  200,000.  The 
resources  of  the  charity  societies  were  unable  to  provide  for 
so  large  a  number,  and  the  actual  suffering  was  very  great. 
Some  persons  well  aware  of  the  facts  tried  to  call  to  them 
the  attention  of  the  city  authorities  in  the  hope  that  the 
municipality  would  institute  public  works  and  thus  provide 
relief.  These  men  were  met  with  a  denial  that  the  number 
of  unemployed  was  unusually  large.  That  they  might 
prove  their  contention  well-founded  some  of  them  called 
for  a  public  meeting  of  the  unemployed  in  Union  Square. 
The  north  end  of  that  Square  has  been  for  generations 
a  place  of  free  assemblage;  it  was,  in  fact,  designed  and 
constructed  for  that  purpose,  and  permission  to  meet  there 
had  never  been  denied.  On  this  occasion  the  Park  Com- 
missioner issued  on  request  the  usual  permit.  Subsequently, 
on  what  demand  or  for  what  reason  was  not  revealed,  the 
permit  was  revoked  a  few  hours  before  the  hour  appointed 
for  the  meeting.  As  very  few  could  learn  of  the  rev- 
ocation, some  thousands  of  people  assembled  at  the 
designated  place.  They  found  the  square  in  the  pos- 
session of  policemen,  mounted  and  on  foot.  These  charged 
upon  the  unresisting  people,  riding  their  horses  upon  them 
and  beating  them  with  clubs.  When  protesting  citizens 
called  the  attention  of  the  police  commander  to  the  fact 
that  he  was  violating  a  right  guaranteed  by  the  Constitu- 
tion to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  he  replied: 
"  The  club  is  mightier  than  the  Constitution." 
By  "  club  "  he  meant  the  weapon  of  the  policeman. 
In  the  midst  of  the  disturbance  a  bomb  was  exploded. 
268 


A  Plea  for  the  Rich 

A  man  that  was  supposed  to  have  exploded  it  was  fatally 
hurt  by  the  concussion;  whether  it  was  really  his  bomb 
was  never  made  clear,  but  he  was  assumed  to  be  an  An- 
archist, and  the  whole  meeting,  organized  for  merely  hu- 
manitarian reasons,  was  so  adroitly  denounced  as  an  An- 
archist assembly  that,  in  the  public  mind,  it  was  endowed 
with  a  wholly  undeserved  odium.  On  the  explosion  of 
the  bomb  the  attack  by  the  police  was  redoubled  and  some 
very  shocking  scenes  ensued.  Policemen  rode  their  horses 
up  the  front  steps  of  buildings  in  pursuit  of  citizens  that 
had  in  no  way  offended,  and  clattered  up  and  down  the 
sidewalks  assaulting  others,  so  that  persons  that  had  been 
in  Russia  were  irresistibly  reminded  of  a  charge  of  Cos- 
sacks, and  many  that  had  no  sympathy  with  the  meeting 
or  its  organizers  were  moved  to  vehement  protest. 

No  one  of  judicial  temperament  witnessing  that  day's 
work  could  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  thought  that  the 
police  had  been  used,  as  much  in  defiance  of  law  as  of 
right,  to  suppress  a  legitimate  meeting  merely  because  the 
significance  of  that  meeting  was  repugnant  to  persons  in 
power.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  deny  that  when  the  fact  is 
viewed  in  connection  with  the  habitual  use  of  the  police, 
the  courts,  and  the  militia  to  suppress  strikes,  or  with  such 
an  exhibition  of  the  drunkenness  of  power  as  the  kidnap- 
ing of  Moyer,  Haywood,  and  Pettibone;  it  is  likely  to 
arouse  a  certain  foreboding.  Yet  evolution  tends  but  one 
way  and  indicates  but  one  end  to  all  this,  and  there  is  no 
adequate  reason  to  think  it  will  work  through  any  other 
means  than  those  of  peace  and  man's  innate  sense  of 
justice  that  not  even  greed  and  Capitalism  can  quite 
crush  out. 


269 


CHAPTER  XIV 

SOME  THINGS  THAT   MIGHT   EASILY   BE 

These  are  the  fruits  of  the  present  industrial  system 
of  the  world — war,  poverty,  slums,  child  labor,  prostitu- 
tion, the  slow  degradation  of  the  masses,  insufficiency  on 
one  hand  and  superfluity  on  the  other,  caste  and  aristoc- 
racy, hatred  instead  of  love,  and  so  many  million  lives 
led  without  the  chance  of  decency,  comfort,  and  happiness 
that  belong  of  right  to  every  human  being;  national  bank- 
ruptcy impending,  and  before  us  the  eventual  collapse 
of  the  whole  industrial  machinery. 

Yet  all  these  things  are  unnecessary.  Every  good  and 
desirable  thing  badly  supplied  by  the  present  organiza- 
tion we  can  secure  without  one  of  the  multitudinous  and 
complex  ills  now  inflicted  upon  us. 

Let  us  see  how.  First,  we  will  suppose,  if  you  please, 
an  organization  that  fundamentally  reverses  the  purpose 
and  methods  of  the  present  system  and  puts  the  comfort, 
happiness,  health,  sufficiency,  and  protection  of  all  the 
people  above  every  other  consideration.  Let  us  suppose 
men  to  say  that  they  need  certain  things,  food,  shelter, 
clothing,  artificial  light  and  heat,  transportation,  and  the 
means  of  communication.  All  men  need  these  things;  they 
are  primal  necessities.  Hitherto,  they  say,  these  things 
have  been  supplied  to  us  through  the  interposition  of 
Capital.  The  result  has  been  that  Capital,  possessing 
the  supplies  of  the  things  that  all  men  need,  and  therefore 

270 


Some  Things  that  Might  Easily  Be 

having  us  at  its  mercy,  has  enriched  itself  at  our  expense, 
gathered  to  itself  the  fruits  of  the  earth  and  of  labor,  fruits 
that  it  has  not  earned  and  cannot  consume.  It  has  cor- 
rupted and  controlled  governments,  monopolized  the  money 
supply,  obstructed  democracy,  supported  autocracy,  erected 
artificial  barriers  between  men  and  their  brother  men,  im- 
posed upon  the  world  a  false  and  degrading  object  of  life, 
impoverished  the  majority  for  the  benefit  of  a  few,  doomed 
the  majority  of  lives  to  drudging  toil  for  the  price  of  bare 
existence,  instigated  war,  and  maintained  costly  and  useless 
armaments.  Henceforth,  therefore,  the  things  we  need  shall 
be  supplied  to  us  not  by  Capital,  which  does  all  badly  and 
is  no  more  than  a  wolf  hungering  for  profits,  but  what 
we  need  shall  be  supplied  to  us  by  the  community  for 
the  community's   good. 

That  would  be  very  different,  would  it  not? 

Suppose,  then,  that  in  accordance  with  this  resolution 
the  community  should  take  over  all  the  banks  and  the 
money  supply,  operating  banks  not  for  individual  profits 
but  for  the  welfare  and  convenience  of  the  public.  That 
would  put  an  end  to  the  money  monopoly,  would  it  not? 
And  to  all  the  evils  that  flow  from  the  money  monopoly. 
Banks  would  no  longer  dictate  legislation  nor  supply  cor- 
ruption funds  nor  be  the  means  of  coercing  men  nor  the 
means  of  precipitating  panics.  And  why  should  this  not 
be  done?  The  purpose  of  a  bank,  and  the  one  reason  for 
chartering  it  and  allowing  it  to  exist,  is  to  secure  a  money 
supply  for  the  community's  use.  That  groups  of  bankers 
should  make  profits  and  accumulate  fortunes  is  of  no 
advantage  to  the  community;  it  has  no  gain  from  these 
fortunes  and  profits  and  abnormal  powers,  which  are 
merely  a  price  extorted  for  a  supply  that  can  be  had 
without  any  such  price. 

271 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

Let  us  suppose,  next,  the  community  to  operate  for  the 
community's  good  all  the  supplies  of  transportation  and 
communication.  That  would  put  an  end  to  the  railroad 
monopoly,  would  it  not?  And  to  the  fatal  process  of 
stock  watering  that  the  railroads  must  now  pursue,  to 
the  corrupting  of  public  officers  by  the  railroad  companies, 
to  their  interference  with  government,  their  constant  break- 
ing of  laws,  the  annoyances  and  extortions  the  community 
now  suffers  at  their  hands,  the  inadequate  service,  the 
arbitrary  rates,  the  failing  equipment,  the  physical  condi- 
tion that  Mr.  Hill  assures  us  is  breaking  down,  to  rebates 
and  discriminations,  to  private  cars  and  terminal  railroads. 
Why  should  this  not  be  done?  The  purpose  of  a  railroad 
is  to  supply  the  community  with  transportation;  for  this 
alone  railroads  are  chartered  and  allowed.  That  a  few 
fortunate  men  should  be  able  to  accumulate  great  fortunes 
and  build  beautiful  homes  is  of  no  benefit  to  the  com- 
munity. What  the  community  needs  is  transportation;  it 
gains  nothing  from  these  fortunes  and  palaces,  which  are 
merely  the  extravagant  tribute  extorted  for  a  service  that 
can  be  had  without  any  such  tribute. 

Let  us  suppose  the  community  to  operate  next  for  the 
community's  good  all  the  coal  mines.  That  would  put 
an  end  to  the  Coal  Trust,  would  it  not?  And  to  the  high 
prices  for  coal  extorted  to  pay  the  interest  on  watered 
stock  and  needless  bonds,  to  the  oppression  of  the  coal 
miner  at  one  end  of  the  industry  and  of  the  coal  consumer 
at  the  other,  to  the  control  of  an  indispensable  necessity 
for  the  profit  of  a  few.  Why  should  this  not  be  done? 
The  object  of  a  coal  mine  is  to  supply  coal  to  the  com- 
munity; it  is  for  this  purpose  and  none  other  that  mining 
companies  are  chartered  and  mining  operations  allowed. 
That  fortunate  speculators  should  be  able  to  gather  great 

272 


Some  Things  that  Might  Easily  Be 

wealth  from  the  needs  of  the  coal  consumers  and  coal 
producers  is  of  no  benefit  to  the  community.  What  it 
wants  is  coal,  and  it  gains  nothing  from  the  fortunes  and 
yachts  and  amusements  of  the  mine  owners,  which  are 
simply  the  unreasonable  tribute  extorted  for  a  supply  that 
can  be  had  without  any  such  tribute. 

Let  us  suppose  the  community  to  operate  for  the  com- 
munity's good  all  the  packing  and  slaughter-houses.  That 
would  put  an  end  forever  to  the  Beef  Trust,  would  it 
not?  And  to  the  conditions  revealed  by  "  The  Jungle," 
and  confirmed  by  President  Roosevelt's  commission,  to  the 
arbitrary  increase  of  the  price  of  meat  and  arbitrary 
manipulation  of  the  cattle  market.  Why  should  not  this 
be  done?  The  object  of  a  packing-house  is  to  supply 
meat  to  the  community.  That  Mr.  Armour  and  Mr.  Swift 
should  get  rich  and  build  handsome  residences  is  of  no 
benefit  to  the  community ;  it  has  no  gain  from  these  for- 
tunes and  residences,  which  are  merely  an  artificial  price 
exacted  for  a  supply  that  can  be  had  without  any  such 
price. 

Let  us  suppose  the  community  to  operate  for  the  com- 
munity's good  all  the  shoe  factories.  That  would  put  an 
end  to  the  making  of  shoes  with  paper  soles,  would  it  not? 
And  to  the  Shoe  Machinery  Trust,  one  of  the  most  odious 
and  dangerous  trusts  on  earth;  also  to  the  tribute  that  this 
trust  levies  upon  every  person  that  wears  shoes.  Why 
should  this  not  be  done?  The  object  of  a  shoe  factory 
is  to  supply  the  community  with  shoes.  That  a  few  rich 
men  should  grow  richer  from  the  manipulation  of  the 
shoe  industry  is  of  no  benefit  to  the  community.  What  it 
wants  is  shoes ;  it  gains  nothing  from  these  fortunes,  which 
are  merely  an  artificial  price  extorted  for  a  supply  that 
can  be  had  without  any  such  price. 

273 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

Let  us  suppose  the  community  to  operate  for  the  com- 
munity's good  the  oil  wells  and  oil  refineries.  That  would 
put  an  end  to  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  would  it  not? 
And  to  the  appointment  of  judges  of  the  Standard  Oil 
Company's  selection,  its  influence  over  the  government  and 
in  politics,  its  purchase  of  legislatures,  its  huge  power  for 
evil  in  so  many  ways.  Why  should  this  not  be  done? 
The  objects  of  an  oil  well  and  of  an  oil  refinery  are  to 
supply  the  community  with  oil;  they  have  no  other  reason 
to  exist.  That  Mr.  Rockefeller,  Mr.  Flagler,  and  Mr. 
Archbold  should  annually  count  so  many  more  millions 
in  their  store  is  of  no  advantage  to  the  community.  It 
has  no  profit  from  the  present  arrangement,  which  is  merely 
a  device  to  extort  an  artificial  tribute  for  a  supply  that  can 
be  had  without  any  such  tribute. 

Let  us  suppose  the  community,  in  the  same  way,  to  own 
and  operate  for  the  Common  Good  the  production  and 
distribution  of  all  the  other  things  that  all  men  must 
have.  It  will  then  have  abolished  a  very  large  part  of 
the  evils  that  we  have  described,  will  it  not?  It  need 
interfere  in  no  way  with  the  supply  of  articles  of  taste. 
No  great  harm  can  ever  come  from  monopolies  of  the  things 
that  nobody  needs ;  a  trust  in  pate  de  fois  gras  or  truffles 
could  hardly  ever  become  a  menace  to  the  liberty  or  wel- 
fare of  the  community;  but  the  private  control  of  the 
supplies  of  the  primal  necessities  is  the  greatest  misfor- 
tune that  ever  befell  the  race.  The  kind  of  community 
that  we  have  been  supposing  would  certainly  bring  that 
misfortune  to  a  sudden  end. 

Next,  let  us  suppose  this  community  to  say:  "Work  is 
not  rightfully  a  privilege  to  be  given  or  withheld  at  the 
caprice  of  a  few  men.  Work  is  a  right  and  a  necessity, 
as  well  as  a  duty;  it  is  as  much  a  necessity  as  fresh  air; 

274 


Some  Things  that  Might  Easily  Be 

no  man  can  be  healthy  without  it.  All  men  must  work 
for  the  Common  Good,  for  thereby  they  are  also  in  the 
highest  sense  working  for  themselves;  henceforth  there  are 
to  be  no  more  unemployed.  Since  the  community  now 
owns  the  supply  of  necessities  it  will  furnish  necessities 
only  to  those  that  perform  their  quota  of  work  for  the 
Common  Good.  If  a  man  do  no  work  he  shall  not  eat, 
but  for  all  men  that  work  the  supply  of  necessities  shall 
be  the  same.  And  since  there  are  now  no  idlers,  no  shirk- 
ers, fewer  hours  of  toil  will  suffice  to  supply  the  world's 
need,  and  four  hours  *  of  manual  labor  will  be  the  limit  for 
each  man.  The  rest  of  his  time  he  can  devote  to  improving 
his  poor  little  mind  (for  which  purpose  the  community 
will  provide  every  facility),  to  rest,  recreation,  culture, 
to  learning  something  about  the  world  in  which  he  is 
placed,  and  to  the  enjoyment  of  its  beauties."  Under 
those  conditions  life  would  be  quite  different,  would  it 
not? 

Suppose  it  next  to  say  that  since  productive  industry  is 
now  carried  on  by  the  community  for  the  Common  Good 
and  not  for  individual  profit,  all  places  wherein  men  work 
shall  be  clean,  spacious,  sanitary,  and  well-lighted;  all 
places  where  men  live  shall  be  airy,  clean,  quiet,  sanitary, 
full  of  sunlight  and  comfort;  all  men  that  work  shall  have 
enough  of  food,  clothing,  shelter,  and  rest.  To  these  ends 
the  community  will  own  the  land  and  use  it  for  the  Common 
Good  and  abolish  from  it  all  unfit  habitations,  and  put 
it  to  human  use  wherever  it  is  now  idle. 

Suppose  it  to  say,  further,  that  all  children  without 
exception,  if  of  average  health  and  strength,  shall  have 

*  One  of  the  greatest  economists  of  America  estimated  long  ago 
that,  if  all  men  were  at  work,  four  hours  a  day  of  labor  would 
produce  all  that  the  world  needs. 

275 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

the  very  best  attainable  education,  shall  have  every  pos- 
sible opportunity  for  acquiring  knowledge,  shall  be  care- 
fully trained  and  developed  physically  and  mentally,  shall 
be  reared  in  beautiful  environments,  shall  always  have  a 
sufficiency  of  nourishment  and  comfort,  shall  not  until 
sufficiently  matured  go  forth  to  daily  toil,  and  shall  have 
a  rational  and  satisfying  object  of  life.  That  would  work 
a  difference,  would  it  not? 

Suppose  it  to  say  that  in  the  place  of  aggrandizement 
it  purposes  to  substitute  the  pursuit  of  knowledge,  happi- 
ness, and  beauty;  that  men  shall  no  longer  spend  their 
lives  either  in  brutish  toil  or  in  gathering  the  dead  leaves 
of  wealth,  nor  women  in  barbaric  display;  that  the  human 
spirit  is  too  noble  and  fine  to  be  wasted  upon  unworthy 
objects,  and  henceforth  it  shall  have  a  chance  to  be  its 
true  self  after  the  image  of  a  god.  That  would  work 
a  difference,  would  it  not? 

Suppose  it  to  say,  further,  that  human  life  is  the  most 
sacred  thing  upon  this  earth,  that  neither  individuals  nor 
nations  can  ever  have  any  right  to  take  it;  that  all  the 
children  of  earth  are  of  one  race  and  brothers,  with  com- 
mon interests,  a  common  origin,  and  a  common  destiny; 
that  as  Capitalism  was  the  source  of  war  and  Capitalism 
is  now  abolished  forever,  we  will  break  up  the  arma- 
ments, disband  the  armies,  and  all  the  idlers  now  wasting 
time  in  preparing  for  war  shall  turn  to  work  for  the 
Common  Good  and  their  own. 

Suppose  it  to  decide  that  at  last  it  will  have  on 
earth  a  genuine  democracy,  that  all  authority  shall  rest 
with  the  people,  that  in  the  conduct  of  all  affairs  there 
shall  be  no  power,  will,  nor  control,  except  the  power, 
will,  and  control  of  all  the  people  upon  one  common  plane, 
with  exactly  equal  rank,  rights,  privileges,  and  station. 

276 


Some  Things  that  Might  Easily  Be 

Suppose  it  to  say  that  women  have  been  long  enough 
the  slaves  of  men.  Suppose  it  to  declare  that  the  idea 
of  woman  as  in  any  way  inferior  to  man  belongs  to  the 
jungle  and  the  dark  ages;  that  henceforth  women  are 
to  be  the  equals  and  companions  of  men,  with  the  same 
rights  in  the  state  and  equal  duties.  This  world  would 
be  a  fairly  decent  world  to  live  in,  would  it  not?  For 
the  first  time  a  man  could  take  his  way  through  it  without 
apologies  for  his  race  or  himself. 

Dwell  for  a  moment  on  some  of  the  advantages  that 
would  result.  It  is  perfectly  evident  that  in  such  an 
organization  of  society  there  would  be  no  undue  aggrega- 
tions of  wealth,  and  no  great  inequalities  in  the  material 
conditions  of  men.  All  the  channels  by  which  individuals 
now  gather  for  themselves  the  wealth  that  should  be  for 
all  would  be  closed,  and  the  community  would  be  using 
production  for  the  Common  Good.  Land,  the  money  supply, 
transportation,  mining,  and  the  manufacture  of  all  articles 
of  necessity  having  ceased  to  be  instruments  of  greed, 
there  would  be  left  no  possible  way  by  which  considerable 
numbers  of  men  could  be  oppressed  or  placed  under  unjust 
tribute.  No  great  fortune  was  ever  made  from  controlling 
the  supplies  of  things  that  men  did  not  want. 

It  is  equally  evident  that  in  such  a  society  there  would 
be  no  poverty.  The  products  of  the  earth  being  sufficient 
for  the  children  of  the  earth,  this  system  would  insure 
the  just  distribution  of  the  products  and  their  develop- 
ment to  the  full  extent  of  men's  needs.  Vast  areas  of 
uncultivated  land,  now  held  in  idleness  for  speculative 
purposes  or  as  hunting  preserves,  would  be  put  to  use. 
The  strange  spectacle  of  men  asking  for  bread  in  the  face 
of  uncultivated  land  would  come  to  an  end.  There  could  be 
no   such  thing  as   insufficiency   for  any  person  willing  to 

277 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

work.  For  those  incapacitated  by  age  or  disease  the  com- 
munity would  care  so  that  at  last  there  would  be  lifted 
from  human  life  the  shadow  of  the  fear  that  has  lain 
upon  it  so  many  generations,  the  fear  of  penury  and 
want. 

Likewise,  under  this  system  there  would  be  no  slums. 
As  the  community  would  own  the  land  and  the  houses,  it 
would  insist  for  its  own  protection  upon  wholesome  dwell- 
ings. In  such  a  city  as  New  York,  for  instance,  the  many 
tracts  of  unimproved  land  that  are  now  so  strange  a 
monument  of  cupidity,  would  be  built  over  with  modern 
houses  arranged  for  light  and  fresh  air.  Such  frightful 
regions  as  the  East  Side  and  the  district  now  occupied 
by  the  tenements  of  Trinity  Church  would  be  swept  clean 
of  their  present  abominations  and  rebuilt  with  wide  streets, 
separate  houses,  parks,  and  playgrounds.  As  the  city 
would  own  the  transportation  system,  it  would  extend  this 
so  as  to  develop  new  and  attractive  suburbs  wherever  they 
might  be  needed.  The  community  would  do  this  because, 
to  mention  but  one  reason,  in  no  other  way  could  it  pro- 
tect itself  against  epidemics.  It  is  in  the  slums  that  most 
bacterial  diseases  are  bred  or  developed.  The  overwhelm- 
ing menace  of  the  slum  as  a  source  of  disease,  expressed, 
for  example,  in  the  spread  of  tuberculosis,  has  had  the 
gravest  attention  of  the  best  civic  authorities  in  Europe, 
and  perhaps  we  can  study  nothing  more  valuable  to  us 
than  the  war  on  slums  in  the  cities  of  England,  where 
the  net  result  so  far,  as  we  have  seen,  has  been 
only  the  destruction  of  one  slum  and  the  creation  of 
another. 

Under  this  system  we  should  abolish  that  curious  anomaly 
and  heavy  curse  known  among  us  as  a  lack  of  employment. 
The  idea  that  there  should  be  in  the  community  men  asking 

278 


Some  Things  that  Might  Easily  Be 

in  vain  for  work  we  now  tolerate  merely  because  the  present 
system  has  reversed  the  natural  sense  of  values  and  ob- 
scured our  normal  perceptions.  There  is  no  community 
that  has  not  at  all  times  much  work  it  needs  to  have  done. 
To  see  how  stupidly  we  deal  with  this  matter  we  have  only 
to  refer  again  to  New  York  City  in  the  winter  of  1907-8, 
when,  with  200,000  men  out  of  work,  very  many  of  them 
destitute  and  without  shelter,  every  resource  of  charity  was 
taxed  to  the  utmost  to  keep  men  from  starving  or  freezing 
in  the  streets,  and  thousands  of  men  whose  only  offense  was 
misfortune  were  committed  to  the  workhouses  and  im- 
prisoned with  felons.  Yet,  while  this  was  going  on,  the 
community  was  suffering  an  acute  need  of  public  im- 
provements. The  transportation  facilities  were  shockingly 
inadequate;  new  subways,  new  bridges,  new  surface 
roads  were  imperatively  needed.  Every  morning  and 
every  evening  the  scenes  to  be  witnessed  in  the  overcrowded 
subway  and  elevated  railway  trains  were  a  denial  of  civili- 
zation, and  of  a  nature  not  to  be  equaled  anywhere  on 
earth  outside  of  America.  All  sense  of  personal  decency 
and  respect  for  self  or  for  others  was  necessarily  thrown 
away  in  that  crowd,  and  men  and  women  struggled  with 
one  another  like  beasts  in  a  pit,  often  at  the  imminent 
risk  of  life  and  limb.  Yet,  while  this  need  of  increased 
transportation  facilities  was  so  urgent  that  it  amounted 
to  a  public  scandal,  200,000  men  marched  the  streets  ask- 
ing in  vain  for  work.  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  any  excuse 
for  a  condition  so  absurd  and  imbecile. 

But  under  the  system  before  outlined,  all  capable  men 
would  be  at  work;  the  needs  of  the  community  would  be 
progressively  supplied.  The  new  subways  so  badly  needed 
in  New  York  were  denied  that  the  Traction  Trust  might 
secure    from   the   city    the   terms    it   demanded;   in   other 

279 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

words,  the  community  was  made  to  suffer,  and  the  un- 
employed were  unprovided  with  work,  because  the  system 
of  private  profits  required  these  conditions.  The  end  of 
the  system  of  private  profits  would  be  likewise  the  end  of 
this  anomaly. 

Again,  under  the  new  organization  of  society,  the  human 
mind  would  have  at  last  a  chance  to  develop  and  to  learn 
some  of  the  essential  facts  of  existence.  So  far  in  its 
history  it  has  learned  almost  nothing.  Of  the  sciences, 
for  instance,  hardly  one  can  be  said  to  be  more  than  in 
its  infancy.  We  know  next  to  nothing  about  geology, 
astronomy,  biology,  or  the  way  to  use  the  forces  with 
which  we  are  surrounded.  Through  ignorance  alone,  the 
race  has  not  yet  begun  to  live.  We  do  not  even  know 
how  to  keep  fairly  well.  Thirty  per  cent,  of  the  diseases 
catalogued  in  the  medical  text-books  are  called  incurable, 
and  yet  it  is  apparent  that  in  reality  there  should  be  no 
such  thing  as  an  incurable  disease;  if  man  can  incur  a 
disease,  man  can  cure  it.  In  the  last  few  generations  the 
normal  span  of  human  life  has  been  lengthened  enough  to 
make  us  understand  that  if  we  only  knew  how  we  could 
easily  live  twice  as  long.  We  are  beginning  to  use  elec- 
tricity as  our  servant,  but  we  have  not  yet  learned  what 
it  is,  nor  what  it  can  do  for  us.  In  the  midst  of  a  free 
and  inexhaustible  supply  of  natural  forces  of  which  we 
make  no  use,  we  are  rapidly  exhausting  our  coal  supplies, 
obtained  only  with  great  effort  and  waste  of  time  and  of 
human  life.  We  turn  our  wheels  and  drive  our  steam- 
ships with  the  most  stupid  and  costly  motive  power, 
because  we  have  never  yet  learned  to  do  anything  more 
rational. 

Now  and  then  some  investigator,  usually  one  that  has 
been  relieved  of  the  burden  of  "  making  his  living,"  dis- 

280 


Some  Things  that  Might  Easily  Be 

covers  some  simple  fact  that  transfers  a  malady  from  the 
incurable  to  the  curable  column.  It  is  reasonable  to  hold 
that,  with  sufficient  study  and  concentration,  all  the  other 
diseases  now  mysterious  could  in  time  be  similarly  trans- 
ferred, if  investigators  only  had  a  chance.  Every  good 
physician  understands  this  perfectly,  for  he  has  himself 
felt,  and  continually  feels,  the  impulse  to  study  and  re- 
search that  are  made  impossible  to  him  by  the  necessity  of 
earning  his  bread.  It  is  not  right  that  the  world  should  lose 
all  of  this  great  possibility  of  discoveries.  Two  of  the 
ablest  physicians  of  my  acquaintance,  both  young  men,  have 
often  assured  me  that  if  by  any  possibility  they  could  be  as- 
sured of  a  bare  subsistence  for  themselves  and  their  families, 
they  would  devote  all  the  rest  of  their  lives  to  laboratory 
and  research  work.  One  of  these  has  won  a  recognized 
standing  as  a  learned  authority  on  the  most  difficult  and 
baffling  nervous  diseases.  He  can  almost  see  before  him 
the  solution  of  problems  that  oppress  him  if  he  can  only 
secure  the  time  to  pursue  certain  lines  of  study  and  ex- 
periment; but  he  is  debarred  from  these  by  the  exigencies 
of  the  practice  he  must  assiduously  build,  if  he  and  his 
family  are  not  to  starve.  No  doubt  many  other  observers 
have  often  noted  the  same  situation,  for  it  is  one  of  the 
countless  indictments  of  the  present  system  that  it  deprives 
us  of  the  natural  and  best  product  of  all  our  good  minds. 
The  time  and  energy  that  should  be  devoted  to  solving 
the  riddles  by  which  we  are  surrounded  are  now  wasted 
in  the  senseless  struggle  with  other  men  to  secure  fruits 
of  the  earth  that  should  be  common  to  all. 

Under  the  new  order,  education  and  art  would,  for  the 
first  time,  have  a  fair  chance  on  earth.  The  artists  that 
now  grope  under  the  deadly  fear  of  want,  or  debase  their 
talents  for  sustenance,  would  be  secure  of  their  livelihood, 

281 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

free  to  express  their  ideas,  and  free  to  attain  their  ideals. 
No  man  can  be  at  his  best  when  the  shape  of  fear  sits 
upon  his  shoulder.  Fear  is  man's  greatest  enemy,  and 
the  most  degrading  influence  that  assails  man's  life;  and 
of  all  fears,  the  fear  of  penury  is  the  most  common,  the 
most  persistent,  and  the  parent  of  the  largest  progeny  of 
evil.  Under  this  system  there  would  be  no  fear  of 
penury. 

Literature,  again,  with  all  the  other  products  of  culture, 
would  have  for  the  first  time  its  normal  function  on  earth. 
Men  would  write,  teach,  and  study,  not  for  gain,  but  for 
the  love  of  achievement,  for  a  noble  instead  of  an  ignoble 
motive.  Beauty,  which  is  now  everywhere  sacrificed  to 
commercialism,  would  have  its  normal  opportunity  to  ap- 
peal to  men  and  to  save  them.  Emulation  would  take  the 
place  of  competition;  life  would  be  sane  instead  of  insane, 
and  led  for  a  rational  object  instead  of  being  expended 
upon  nothing. 

If  against  this  system  of  industry  there  be  raised  the 
cant  objection  that  it  is  Utopian  or  chimerical,  I  desire  to 
ask,  Why?  What  can  be  chimerical  in  a  practical  faith 
in  the  natural  goodness  of  men,  instead  of  faith  in  the 
evil  that  false  conditions  have  forced  upon  his  life?  What 
is  chimerical  in  the  idea  of  a  practical  application  of  the 
idea  of  brotherhood,  or  in  the  practical  substitution  of  love 
for  hate,  or  in  the  practical  acceptance  of  the  idea  that 
man  is  something  better  than  a  beast?  There  is  nothing 
in  Socialism  beyond  the  easy  reach  of  humanity.  If  you 
think  that  men  cannot  live  without  preying  upon  one  an- 
other, look  you  how  poor  a  thing  you  make  of  Man !  If 
he  be,  indeed,  not  otherwise  than  the  wolf  and  the  tiger, 
how  then  will  you  account  for  the  noble  and  heroic  deeds, 
the  self-sacrifice,  tenderness,  and  lofty  aspirations  of  which 

282 


Some  Things  that  Might  Easily  Be 

he  is  capable.  If  any  man  be  capable  of  sympathy  for 
another's  welfare,  the  society  of  men  is  capable  of  Social- 
ism. Every  act  of  kindness,  charity,  good  will,  courtesy, 
every  recognition  of  the  claims  of  brotherhood,  is  a  refuta- 
tion of  the  theory  that  men  are  beasts  and  must  neces- 
sarily rend  and  tear  one  another.  It  is  Capitalism  and  a 
false  system  of  society  that  makes  enemies  of  men  that 
otherwise  would  be  friends.  And  if  we  think  evil  of 
men,  shall  they  not  do  evil?  So  long  as  we  hold  to  dis- 
belief in  the  essential  goodness  of  man  we  deprive  our- 
selves of  the  best  that  is  in  us  and  the  best  that  is  in 
our  fellows. 

It  is  usually  urged  at  this  point  that  without  the  em- 
ployment of  greed  and  the  gainful  appetite  as  social  factors, 
there  would  be  no  incentive  to  effort,  and  the  world's  work 
would  come  to  an  end.  This  is,  of  course,  to  take  the 
lowest  possible  view  of  man,  and  to  deny  all  that  is  good 
in  him.  But  even  if  we  can  conceive  the  heart  of  man 
to  be  bad,  and  if  we  can  put  aside  all  the  physical  facts 
concerning  the  necessity  of  work  and  its  relations  to  health, 
and  if  we  can  believe  that  nothing  appeals  to  men  except 
their  stomachs,  we  need  but  refer  again  to  a  very  sig- 
nificant fact  previously  pointed  out  in  these  discussions. 
What  is  ordinarily  meant  by  the  term  "  incentive  to  effort  " 
can  be  disregarded  so  far  as  this  country  is  concerned, 
because  it  has  already  ceased  to  exist.  The  process  of 
evolution  has  attended  to  that,  and  quite  effectually.  By 
"  incentive  to  effort "  is  meant  the  ambition  to  improve 
one's  position,  to  rise  from  poverty  to  wealth,  to  ascend 
from  the  state  of  a  clerk  to  that  of  a  proprietor,  to  join 
the  men  at  the  top  of  the  ladder  of  fortune,  and  the  like. 
We  can  see  how  much  of  this  "  incentive  "  is  left  if  we 
once  more  consider  the  extent  to  which  the  consolidation 

283 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

of  industry  has  been  carried.  What  chance  to  rise  has 
a  young  man  now  entering  the  service  of  the  United  States 
Steel  Corporation?  What  chance  to  become  an  independ- 
ent owner?  What  chance  to  make  a  great  fortune?  By 
rare  good  luck,  combined  with  diligence,  he  may  pos- 
sibly get  his  wages  raised;  he  may  rise  from  one  clerkship 
to  another;  but  he  can  never  be  anything  but  the  Corpora- 
tion's hired  man,  dependent  for  his  employment  upon  some- 
body's good  will  or  somebody's  caprice.  Of  the  great 
army  of  Standard  Oil  employees,  what  one  can  be  said 
to  have  "  incentive  to  effort "  in  the  sense  in  which  the 
term  is  employed  by  Socialism's  critics?  By  no  possibility 
can  he  hope  to  be  a  proprietor  and  independent;  by  no 
possibility  accumulate  a  fortune.  His  horizon  of  life  is 
limited  by  his  daily  toil  and  some  remote  prospect  that 
some  day,  if  all  goes  well,  the  pittance  he  earns  may  be 
increased.  He  is  become  a  human  machine,  revolving  daily 
in  his  allotted  place  until  worn  out,  and  then  to  be  replaced 
by  another.  More  and  more,  as  consolidation  and  con- 
centration increase,  this  becomes  the  condition  of  the  whole 
great  middle-class  in  this  country.  How  absurd,  then,  to 
talk  about  "  incentive  to  effort  "  in  such  a  class !  The  only 
incentive  to  effort  there  is  the  sheer  necessity  of  selling 
the  best  of  their  lives  for  mere  subsistence.  In  their  state, 
the  cardinal  fact  is  that  life  is  all  drudging  toil,  and  as 
we  have  already  seen,  this  condition,  in  successive  genera- 
tions, has  only  one  result. 

But  all  this  is  an  unnecessary  consideration.  The  real 
incentive  to  effort  is  something  very  different.  We  should 
not  overlook  the  fact  that  the  important  discoveries,  in- 
ventions, and  worthy  achievements  in  the  world's  history 
have  been  made  by  men  that  reaped  no  money  from  their 
labors,  and  could  reap  none.     The  physicians  that  spend 

284 


Some  Things  that  Might  Easily  Be 

the  best  of  their  lives  in  laboratory  research  know  well 
enough  they  can  never  earn  money  by  such  work,  and 
they  desire  to  earn  none.  Their  reward  is  sufficient  to 
them  if  they  add  something  to  the  total  of  human  knowledge. 
I  doubt  if  there  be  any  man  imbued  with  the  genuine  in- 
spiration of  the  medical  profession  that  would  be  deterred 
from  research  work  by  the  fact  that  it  would  never  be 
profitable  to  him.  Men  that  spend  their  lives  in  the  service 
of  science  never  dream  of  getting  rich  from  what  they 
may  discover;  the  suggestion  would  seem  to  them  infinitely 
abhorrent,  they  would  believe  it  impossible  for  any  man 
to  be  a  true  or  worthy  student  if  he  allowed  the  thought 
of  gain  to  possess  his  mind.  Yet,  recall  the  great  and 
tireless  labors  of  some  of  these  men;  Darwin,  Tyndall, 
Huxley,  Agassiz,  Gray,  Lubbock — how  absurd  it  would  be 
to  suggest  money-making  to  any  of  these !  They  lived  for 
science;  that  was  reward  enough.  And  will  you  tell  me 
that  with  these  splendid  careers  crowding  history  so  that 
one  could  fill  pages  with  their  names,  all  of  men  that 
toiled  their  lives  through  for  Service  and  not  for 
money,  will  you  say  that  gain  is  the  only  incentive 
that  appeals  to  men,  and  without  it  nothing  would  be 
done? 

To  that  question  I  confess  I  should  very  much  like 
an  answer,  for  thus  far  I  have  heard  of  none.  How  can 
we  gather  the  figs  of  decency  from  the  thistles  of  bestiality? 
How  can  greed,  that  is  essentially  a  vice  and  the  worker 
of  infinite  evil,  be  also  a  virtue  and  the  source  of  good? 
How  can  we  really  believe  that  the  world  of  men  can 
proceed  and  supply  its  needs  only  by  a  series  of  com- 
promises with  conscience? 

Moreover,  these  contentions  that  the  gainful  impulse  is 
an  indispensable  adjunct  to  Service  are  refuted  again  by 

285 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

daily  experience.  Consider  for  a  moment  the  vast  labors 
performed  without  compensation  by  members  of  such  bodies 
as  the  London  Municipal  Council,  the  local  councils  in 
many  other  cities,  the  various  boards  of  education  and 
boards  of  health  that  commonly  serve  without  pay.  No 
money  could  secure  the  conscientious  and  unremitting  labors 
that  are  performed  by  the  London  County  Councilmen  for 
nothing.  Wherever  around  this  world  public  service  for 
the  Common  Good  has  been  substituted  for  public  service 
for  gain  there  has  been  an  increase  of  zeal  and  a  decrease 
of  scandal.  It  is  not  true  that  men  are  unwilling  to  do 
anything  except  for  their  personal  gain;  the  truth  is,  that 
most  men,  if  they  have  any  chance,  will  do  more  for  others 
and  more  for  the  Common  Good  than  they  will  do  for 
themselves. 

And  in  this  is  the  noblest  profit.  We  cannot  change 
the  essential  principles  of  human  existence;  after  all,  the 
truth  remains  that  the  greatest  joy  that  life  affords  is 
something  done  for  somebody  else.  The  man  that  lives 
for  himself  dies  within  himself.  All  that  is  proposed  here 
is  to  build  practically  upon  these  fundamental  truths  of 
being.  In  such  a  project  how  can  there  be  any- 
thing chimerical?  How  can  there  be  anything  that 
is  in  the  least  unreasonable,  or,  if  we  come  to  that, 
improbable  ? 

One  of  the  curses  of  the  existing  system  is  that  it  de- 
prives life  of  the  normal  opportunities  for  this  joy  of 
service.  I  believe  it  to  be  the  invariable  human  testimony 
that  nothing  in  this  world  softens  the  melancholy  fact  of 
increasing  years  and  approaching  death  except  the  reflec- 
tion that  one  has  been  of  use,  one  has  served  one's  times, 
helped  one's  fellows,  brightened  some  lives,  contributed 
some  service  that  Society  required,  made  some  return  for  the 

286 


Some  Things  that  Might  Easily  Be 

life  intrusted  to  one.  What  better  prospect  could  be  for  life 
than  life  without  cruelty,  oppression,  greed,  penury,  or 
insufficiency,  and  life  devoted  to  service  and  the  growth 
of  the  spirit  within?  Of  all  this,  man  that  looks  at  the 
stars  and  walks  with  the  angels  is  capable  as  surely  as 
he  is  Man. 


287 


CHAPTER  XV 


THE    WAY    OF    THE    WORLD 


We  can  very  well  lay  aside  consideration  of  theory  or 
opinion  concerning  all  these  matters,  and  face  the  fact 
that,  whether  we  approve  or  disapprove  of  such  an  or- 
ganization, the  whole  world  is  moving  towards  it.  We 
can  see  now,  if  we  care  to  look,  that  many  of  the  new  con- 
ditions (here  roughly  and  briefly  outlined)  are  already 
established  in  faultless  operation,  and  we  can  observe  the 
beginning  of  many  others.  The  next  step  in  the  progress 
of  the  race  is  so  clearly  revealed  in  these  innovations  that 
the  conclusion  is  not  to  be  escaped  by  any  mind  that  will 
weigh  carefully  the  industrial  conditions  of  to-day  with  the 
industrial  conditions  of  twenty-five  years  ago;  and  he  will 
find  in  the  same  consideration  the  reasonable  way  by  which 
evolution  is  bringing  about  every  change  that  we  have  here 
discussed. 

To  make  this  clear,  we  will  now  take,  if  you  like,  one 
of  the  typical  and  primary  needs  of  society  and  observe 
how  it  was  supplied  under  the  old  or  Capitalistic  system, 
and  how  it  is  supplied  in  progressive  regions  of  the  world 
under  the  beginning  of  Socialism.  Let  us  take  transporta- 
tion. 

I  go  back  to  1887.  In  Chicago  that  year,  Mr.  Charles 
T.  Yerkes,  a  financial  adventurer  of  little  means,  secured 
with  a  deposit  of  $25,000  of  borrowed  money  the  control 
of  a  street  car  line  called  the  North   Chicago   Railroad. 

288 


The  Way  of  the  World 

Having  the  control,  he  issued  upon  the  property  masses 
of  additional  securities  (stocks  and  bonds)  until  with  these 
he  had  paid  for  the  road  and  returned  the  money  he  had 
borrowed.  He  now  proceeded  on  various  pretexts  to  issue 
more  securities,  and  with  these  he  purchased  another  street 
railroad.  Upon  this  he  issued  still  other  securities  and 
made  additional  purchases,  until  in  a  few  years  and  with- 
out the  investment  of  a  dollar,  he  controlled  all  the  street 
railroads  of  Chicago,  except  those  owned  by  one  company 
on  the  South  Side. 

These  he  continued  at  intervals  to  load  with  more  securi- 
ties, until  the  system  became  one  of  the  most  heavily  capi- 
talized enterprises  in  the  country.  Some  of  the  stocks 
and  bonds  that  Mr.  Yerkes  manufactured  so  readily  he 
kept  for  himself;  others  he  sold  at  high  prices.  All  of 
the  stocks  and  bonds  of  whatsoever  description  that  he 
issued  became  charges  upon  the  enterprise.  The  bonds 
were  mortgages,  and  if  the  interest  upon  them  were  not 
paid  the  owners  of  the  bonds  could  foreclose  and  seize 
the  property;  the  stocks  were  in  reality  hardly  less  than 
a  mortgage,  for  if  dividends  were  not  paid  upon  them, 
stockholders  could  go  into  court  and  demand  a  receiver. 
That  the  dividends  and  interest  should  be  paid  on  the  vast 
issues  of  stocks  and  bonds  of  Mr.  Yerkes's  making  (for 
his  own  profit)  it  was  necessary  to  increase  the  revenue 
of  the  enterprise  and  decrease  the  expenses.  These  results 
were  achieved  by  crowding  a  great  many  persons  into  each 
car,  by  reducing  the  service,  by  neglecting  to  maintain 
the  equipment,  and  refusing  to  make  needed  repairs.  As 
a  consequence,  Chicago  soon  had  the  worst  transportation 
service  in  the  world.  The  cars  were  infrequent,  small, 
old,  unsafe,  dirty,  slow,  and  brutally  overcrowded;  the 
roadbed  and  track  were  scandalously  out  of  repair,  so  that 

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Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

the  physical  sufferings  of  the  passengers  became  acute, 
and  there  were  frequent  accidents,  some  of  them  fatal. 
The  motive  power  was  of  a  kind  obsolete  elsewhere,  and 
quite  inadequate  to  the  service.  Before  long  the  defects 
of  the  transportation  facilities  became  so  notorious  that 
it  was  a  burden  on  business,  and  many  persons  believed 
it  to  be  retarding  the  city's  growth.  Certainly  it  produced 
daily  scenes  that  would  disgrace  a  community  of  bar- 
barians. In  the  busy  hours  of  the  evening  men  fought 
for  a  chance  to  get  into  the  cars,  where  finally  they  were 
grossly  packed  together  on  platforms,  steps,  railings,  and 
even  the  couplings,  at  the  imminent  risk  of  their  lives. 

Meantime,  Mr.  Yerkes  continued  to  issue  and  absorb 
securities.  When  it  was  evident  that  the  system  could 
stand  no  more  and  the  crash  was  not  far  off,  he  sold  his 
interests  and  retired  to  London  with  $40,000,000,  made  in 
fifteen  years  on  an  investment  of  nothing.  In  accordance 
with  the  approved  methods  of  the  present  system,  he  had 
"  capitalized  the  earning  power "  of  the  lines,  and  the 
wretched  and  inadequate  service  was  the  means  by  which 
the  public  paid  for  the  capitalization. 

Almost  immediately  upon  his  withdrawal  the  collapse 
followed,  and  a  receiver  was  appointed.  About  five  years 
of  litigation  followed,  in  which  the  city  vainly  tried  to 
recover  the  streets  that  the  system  had  continued  to  use 
after  its  franchise  had  expired.  In  that  time  the  service 
continued  to  be  abominable,  for  the  duty  of  the  receiver 
was  naturally  to  try  to  wring  from  the  wreck  enough 
money  to  pay  the  interest  on  the  excessive  securities  and 
not  at  all  to  regard  public  complaint. 

Mr.  Yerkes  was  a  close  friend  and  business  ally  of  Mr. 
W.  L.  Elkins  and  Mr.  P.  A.  B.  Widener,  of  Philadelphia, 
and  while  he  was  engaged  in  building  his  great  fortune 

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The  Way  of  the  World 

by  "  capitalizing  the  earning  power  "  of  the  Chicago  street 
railroads,  Mr.  Elkins  and  Mr.  Widener  were  busy  with 
the  like  operations  in  Philadelphia,  where  they  achieved 
in  all  respects  a  like  result.  That  is  to  say,  they  accumu- 
lated for  themselves  great  fortunes,  and  the  people  of 
Philadelphia  paid  for  these  fortunes  year  after  year  in 
unnecessary  fares,  deficient  accommodations,  and  finally  in 
the  wreck  of  their  transportation  system.  Mr.  Elkins  and 
Mr.  Widener  were  closely  associated  with  Mr.  William  C. 
Whitney  and  Mr.  Thomas  F.  Ryan,  of  New  York.  To- 
gether they  secured  control  of  the  street  railroad  system 
of  New  York  City,  they  applied  methods  used  in  Chicago 
and  Philadelphia,  and  again  they  secured  enormous  profits 
at  the  community's  expense. 

Most  of  these  transportation  systems  were  ruined  and 
thrown  into  the  hands  of  receivers,  because  their  earning 
power  had  been  capitalized  for  the  benefit  of  the  gentle- 
men in  control.  In  each  instance  the  public  not  only 
suffered  great  discomfort  and  extortion  for  the  time  being, 
but  must  continue  to  suffer  for  a  long  time  to  come.  How 
this  came  about  may  be  seen  in  one  concrete  illustration 
from  the  history  of  the  syndicate  in  New  York. 

Its  operations  began  with  the  purchase  for  $50,000  of 
one  railroad,  which  was  immediately  "  reorganized  "  (in  the 
cant  phrase),  and  bonded  for  the  purchase  of  additional 
railroads,  the  $50,000  being  the  only  money  ever  invested 
in  the  enterprise.  With  securities  issued  upon  one  rail- 
road the  syndicate  bought  another,  until  it  controlled 
the  entire  street  railroad  system  of  New  York  county  and 
had  heavily  loaded  it  with  stocks  and  bonds.  At  intervals 
it  reorganized  under  a  new  name,  and  each  reorganization 
was  accompanied  by  the  issue  of  new  securities.  At  last 
this  process  reached  a  point  where  the  earnings  could  not 

291 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

be  made  to  pay  the  fixed  charges  and  for  a  year  or  two 
these  were  paid  out  of  the  receipts  from  securities.  Mean- 
while, the  original  members  of  the  Syndicate  dropped  out. 
As  soon  as  the  inability  of  the  property  to  earn  the  interest 
charges  was  apparent,  the  collapse  followed  and  receivers 
were  appointed.  It  was  the  duty  of  the  receivers  to  obtain 
the  interest  money  if  they  possibly  could.  To  that  end 
they  cut  off  transfers  and  changed  the  routing  of  certain 
cars,  and  thereby  secured  from  the  public  in  payment  for 
transportation  an  increased  toll  that  has  been  estimated  at 
$25,000  a  day.  This  additional  payment  was  in  the  face 
of  the  fact  that  the  service  afforded  was,  and  for  many 
years  had  been,  very  inadequate,  while  the  overcrowding 
of  the  cars  was  almost  intolerable. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  $25,000  of  additional  daily 
tribute  thus  secured  principally  affected  the  poor.  The 
transfers  now  abolished  had  been  used  almost  exclusively 
by  the  working  class.  Well-to-do  persons  paid  little  at- 
tention to  the  transfer  system.  It  was  not  of  moment  to 
them.  But  to  thousands  upon  thousands  of  workingmen 
and  workingwomen,  already  preyed  upon  in  so  many  dif- 
ferent ways,  transfers  were  of  a  very  real  importance. 
Often  they  made  the  difference  between  a  ride  and  a  long 
walk  on  their  way  to  and  from  their  work.  With  street 
car  transfers  many  working  girls  could  secure  an  addi- 
tional half  hour  of  rest  every  day.  The  taking  away  of 
the  transfers  meant,  that  of  the  scanty  wages  earned  by 
these  girls,  $4,  $5,  or  $6  a  week,  they  must  pay  to  the 
street  railroad  $1.20  for  transportation,  or  they  must  walk 
long  distances  and  arise  earlier  in  the  morning. 

All  this  was  solely  the  result  of  the  process  of  "  capi- 
talizing the  earning  power "  of  the  railroads.  In  this 
instance  the  term  seems  to  have  been  a  misnomer.     What 

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The  Way  of  the  World 

was  really  capitalized  was  the  health,  time,  comfort,  and 
pitiable  wages  of  the  shop  girls  of  New  York. 

We  may  note  with  some  interest,  also,  that  if  there  had 
been  none  of  this  process;  if  the  enterprise  had  been  re- 
quired to  earn  interest  on  the  actual  investment,  and  to 
earn  no  more  than  this,  passengers  could  have  been  carried 
profitably  at  3  cents  each.  This  statement  is  equally  true 
of  the  street  railroad  system  of  Chicago  and  Philadelphia, 
so  that  in  all  these  places  of  every  5  cents  paid  by  the 
public  to  the  company  3  cents  was  for  transportation  and  a 
reasonable  profit  and  2  cents  for  the  securities  that  had  been 
piled  upon  the  system. 

On  a  large  scale  or  a  small  scale,  what  happened  in 
Chicago,  Philadelphia,  and  New  York  happened  in  many 
other  cities  of  the  United  States.  Everywhere  the  earning 
power  of  the  street  railroads  has  been  capitalized  for  the 
benefit  of  the  men  in  control,  leaving  a  huge  load  of  in- 
terest to  be  borne  for  many  years  by  the  community  and 
to  be  paid  in  impaired  service  or  unjust  charges,  or  both; 
for  in  no  other  way  can  the  interest  be  paid. 

These  are  familiar  and  admitted  facts.  I  now  beg  leave 
to  ask  attention  to  the  following  simple  propositions: 

1.  That  the  highways  in  which  these  men  operated  the 
railroads  belonged  to  the  community  and  not  to  the  men 
that  made  the  profits  from  them. 

2.  That  the  securities  they  issued  on  highways  thus 
operated  were  and  are  burdens  that  the  community  must 

pay- 

3.  That  the  men  that  thus  possessed  themselves  of  the 
community's  highways  and  gathered  great  wealth  by  levy- 
ing tribute  upon  the  community  rendered  to  the  community 
no  service  of  any  kind. 

4.  That  it  was  not  at  any  time  nor  in  any  degree  any 

293 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

concern  of  the  public  that  these  gentlemen  should  make 
money;  the  public  derived  nothing  from  the  money  thus 
made.  The  only  concern  of  the  public  was  to  secure 
transportation,  and  these  gentlemen  were  of  no  assistance 
to  transportation,  but  only  a  great  hindrance. 

5.  That  these  conditions  are  a  part  of  the  present  system 
and  cannot  possibly  be  checked,  prevented,  or  controlled 
so  long  as  the  system  exists. 

6.  That  they  are  in  no  way  a  necessary  evil.  Trans- 
portation can  be  secured  and  maintained  without  such 
afflictions. 

Let  us  put  by  the  side  of  the  wretched  and  inadequate 
transportation  service  in  Chicago,  Philadelphia,  New  York, 
and  most  American  cities,  the  street  railroad  system  of 
London,  Manchester,  Liverpool,  Glasgow,  Dresden,  Munich, 
Vienna,  Cologne,  Zurich,  Berne,  Antwerp,  or  Lugano,  or 
of  any  one  of  a  hundred  other  cities  of  Europe,  great 
or  small.  Instead  of  bad  service  we  shall  find  good  service; 
instead  of  dirty  cars,  infrequent  and  uncomfortable,  we 
shall  find  clean  cars  of  the  latest  pattern,  comfortable, 
smoothly  riding,  and  frequent;  instead  of  overcrowding 
we  shall  find  accommodations  for  all;  instead  of  manifest 
inefficiency  we  shall  find  efficiency;  instead  of  an  equip- 
ment in  some  stage  of  decay  we  shall  find  every  modern 
device  for  comfort  and  security;  and  we  shall  find 
all  this  furnished  at  the  minimum  price  to  the  public. 
In  these  cities  there  is  no  problem  about  the  capitalized 
earning  power,  no  device  to  levy  upon  the  community  an 
abnormal  tribute  for  the  benefit  of  a  few  grasping  and 
unscrupulous  men.  We  shall  find  an  adequate  transporta- 
tion service  furnished  by  the  community  to  the  community 
for  the  community's  sole  profit. 

In  the  one  case  there  is  a  public  service  in  public  streets 
294 


The  Way  of  the  World 

for  private  gain;  in  the  other  a  public  service  in  the  public 
streets  for  the  public  benefit. 

Here  is  one  broad  finger-post  plainly  pointing  the  way. 
In  recent  years  the  cities  of  Europe  have  begun  to  take 
over  one  public  service  after  another,  and  to  operate  all 
for  the  Common  Good.  Nearly  all  the  considerable  cities 
of  Europe  now  own  their  street  railroad  systems;  many 
own  their  gas  and  electric  lighting  plants,  some  own  their 
markets  and  cemeteries.  Year  by  year  the  circle  of  munici- 
pal trading  is  increasing  everywhere  in  Europe. 

In  these  respects  the  cities  are  but  following  the  trend 
of  a  widespread  evolution.  The  nations  are  assuming  more 
and  more  the  duty  of  supplying  the  primal  necessities. 
Communication  is  everywhere  in  Europe  a  service  supplied 
by  the  community  for  the  community's  good.  Transporta- 
tion is  rapidly  ceasing  to  be  a  service  supplied  by  indi- 
viduals for  individual  profit.  Switzerland  began  to  take 
over  its  railroads  on  January  1,  1901,  and  acquired  the 
last  of  them  on  January  1,  1909-  Italy  nationalized  its 
railroads  in  1905,  Japan  in  1906,  and  Mexico  in  1907- 
All  the  railroads  of  Hungary,  and  most  of  those  of  Austria, 
are  operated  by  the  State.  France  in  1908  added  to  its 
national  railroads  the  great  Western  system,  and  is  to 
acquire  all  the  rest.  Germany  owns  and  operates  its  rail- 
roads and  derives  therefrom  large  profits  for  the  govern- 
ment and  the  Common  Good.  The  railroads  of  Belgium, 
Denmark,  Sweden,  Norway,  Russia,  Servia,  and  Turkey 
are  owned  and  operated  by  the  government.  In  all  these 
countries  the  telegraph  and  telephone  services  are  furnished 
by  and  for  the  public. 

As  to  Great  Britain,  all  persons  that  know  the  actual 
condition  of  the  British  railroads,  to  what  straits  private 
ownership  has  brought  them,  how  the  earning  power  has 

295 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

been  capitalized  and  recapitalized,  until  it  has  been  strained 
to  the  utmost  limit,  know  that  nationalization  is  close  at 
hand.  For  these  enterprises  there  is  no  other  rescue, 
and  it  is  probable  that  if  the  government  should  move 
to-day  towards  the  purchase  of  the  lines,  the  present 
owners,  far  from  offering  objection,  would  be  actually 
relieved. 

In  Australia  the  government  owns  and  operates  the  rail- 
roads, the  telegraph  and  telephone  lines,  and  has  con- 
sidered the  operating  of  the  tobacco  industry  and  even  of  a 
line  of  steamships.  In  Sydney  one  of  the  best  street 
railroad  systems  in  the  world  is  publicly  owned,  and  returns 
to  the  community  a  handsome  profit.  In  New  Zealand, 
where  the  new  order  has  been  carried  farther  than  any- 
where else  in  the  world,  the  community  owns  and  oper- 
ates railroads,  telegraphs,  telephones,  life  and  fire  insur- 
ance, coal  mines,  and  a  system  of  providing  labor  for  the 
unemployed.  The  city  of  Wellington,  owning  its  street 
railroad  system,  recently  gave  an  illustration  of  what  life 
will  be  like  under  Socialism  by  extending  the  road  and 
building  a  new  and  handsome  suburb  of  sanitary  separate 
dwellings. 

In  France,  Spain,  Italy,  Austria,  and  Turkey  the  gov- 
ernment is  in  the  tobacco  business.  In  France  it  makes 
matches.  In  Japan,  the  rising  commercial  giant,  whose 
progress  gives  some  of  us  so  much  uneasiness,  the  govern- 
ment owns  or  directly  or  indirectly  controls  the  banks 
and  the  money  supply,  prepares  and  sells  tobacco,  has  a 
monopoly  of  the  camphor  trade,  and  has  a  share  in  flour 
mills,  breweries,  steamship  lines,  and  other  ventures.  In 
Germany  the  government  owns  and  operates  coal  mines, 
furnishes  insurance,  and  furthers  the  Common  Good  by 
lending  its  money  for  the  building  of  sanitary  dwellings. 

296 


The  Way  of  the  World 

Is  it  possible  to  escape  the  significance  of  all  this  move- 
ment in  the  one  direction? 

The  rapid  spread  over  all  Europe  of  what  is  called 
Cooperation  keeps  pace  with  this  movement,  and  is  a  part 
of  the  same  evolution.  Justly  the  Cooperative  society  may 
be  looked  upon  as  a  first  step  towards  the  Cooperative 
Commonwealth.  It  eliminates  competition,  it  is  conducted 
solely  for  the  benefit  of  its  members,  it  looks  toward  their 
intellectual  as  well  as  their  material  welfare,  it  is  con- 
ducted on  democratic  lines;  so  far  as  it  goes  it  checks  the 
unequal  distribution  of  wealth  by  which  one  man  gets  too 
much  and  a  thousand  men  get  far  too  little;  it  incul- 
cates something  of  the  basic  principle  of  common  interest 
upon  which  Socialism  rests.  In  view  of  these  facts,  we 
should  carefully  note  that  the  Cooperative  societies  have 
grown  until  they  have  become  a  great  factor  in  the  eco- 
nomics of  Europe  and  threatened  the  Capitalistic  system 
in  more  than  one  country. 

The  growth  of  the  old  age  pension,  a  purely  Socialistic 
device,  is  another  indication  of  the  same  general  movement. 
Germany  has  an  old  age  pension  in  admirable  working, 
so  have  some  of  the  Australian  states,  and  New  Zealand. 
Great  Britain  has  lately  adopted  one,  and  France  is  soon 
in  this  respect  to  follow  the  example  of  these  nations. 

So  then  the  conclusion  is  that  if  these  nations  can  with 
the  greatest  success  supply  some  of  the  primal  necessities, 
other  nations  can  supply  the  same  necessities  and  others. 
If  most  of  the  nations,  aside  from  the  United  States,  are 
now  supplying  transportation  and  communication,  the 
United  States  can  supply  transportation  and  communica- 
tion. If  Germany  and  New  Zealand  can  supply  coal,  so 
can  other  nations.  If  a  government  can  supply  coal  and 
electricity,   it   can   supply   oil   and   iron.      If   it  can   own 

297 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

land  for  the  purpose  of  digging  a  canal,  it  can  own  land 
for  the  purpose  of  providing  its  citizens  with  decent  houses. 
These  propositions  are  incontestable.  They  prove  that  the 
work  done  in  the  world  by  Capital  can  be  done  without 
Capital.  Wherever  Capital  does  the  work,  it  does  it  badly, 
with  waste  of  human  life  and  sickening  conditions  of  human 
misery.  Wherever  the  work  is  done  by  the  community,  it 
is  well  done,  and  to  the  advancement  of  human  happiness. 
Therefore,  this  institution  of  Capital  is  not  only  savage 
and  fatal,  but  wholly  superfluous.  Not  one  service  does  it 
perform  that  cannot  be  better  performed  without  it.  Long 
enough  it  has  darkened  the  world;  it  should  now  take  its 
proper  place  with  other  clumsy  and  outworn  devices  of 
the  past. 

For  all  the  evils  of  the  present  system,  Socialism  is  the 
only  remedy  that  really  promises  a  cure.  To  waste  further 
time  with  the  quacksalvers  of  regulation  and  restriction 
is  merely  childish.  Capitalism  can  evade  any  regulation 
and  break  over  any  restriction.  So  long  as  we  regulate  we 
only  perpetuate  the  terrible  conditions  of  modern  life. 

If  it  be  objected  that  in  this  country  great  obstacles 
lie  in  the  way  of  reaching  such  an  organization  of  society 
as  Socialism  indicates,  the  sufficient  answer  is  that  the 
collapse  of  the  existing  system  will  force  us  to  find  the 
way  to  overcome  all  these  obstacles.  Between  the  present 
system  and  Socialism  there  is  no  choice  except  Anarchism, 
which  is,  indeed,  the  culmination  and  ultimate  perfection  of 
the  present  system.  To  maintain  some  form  of  Capitalism 
and  strip  it  of  its  horrors  and  evil  products  has  been  for 
many  years  the  object  of  able  thinkers  and  investigators, 
and  nobody  has  yet  devised  any  possible  plan  to  that  end. 
Until  men  can  create  new  continents  and  fill  them  with 
undeveloped  people  there  will  be  no  answer  to  the  problem 

298 


The  Way  of  the  World 

of  the  Unconsumed  Surplus,  and  that  problem  will  con- 
tinue to  grow  upon  and  plague  and  undo  us.  Until  men 
can  encompass  the  impossible,  they  can  find  no  answer 
to  the  problem  of  the  Capitalized  Earning  Power,  and 
that  problem  will  go  on  until  the  transportation  systems 
are  forced  into  the  hands  of  the  government,  whereupon 
the  rest  of  the  work  will  be  simplified. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  difficulties  in  the  way  are  not 
very  great;  many  of  them  will  solve  themselves,  others  are 
being  solved.  For  instance,  twenty-five  years  ago  the 
railroad  system  of  the  United  States  was  controlled  by 
probably  two  hundred  men.  To-day  it  is  controlled  by 
five.  Two  years  ago  there  were  seven  in  control.  Five 
years  ago  there  were  ten.  In  a  few  years  there  will  be 
one.  For  the  control  of  the  railroads  to  pass  from  one 
man  to  the  government  is  not  very  difficult.  Similarly, 
the  process  of  consolidation  that  is  going  on  in  all  lines 
of  industry  is  making  Socialism  not  only  inevitable,  but 
easy.  Every  trust  is  a  mighty  power  for  Socialism;  every 
department  store  is  working  incessantly  towards  the  same 
end;  every  company  that  opens  restaurants,  drug  stores, 
or  grocery  stores  under  one  ownership  is  doing  our  work 
for  us.  It  is  eliminating  waste  and  the  small  owner  and 
organizing  industry  on  such  a  basis  that  with  a  single 
change  it  will  cease  to  be  operated  for  the  profit  of  a  few, 
and  begin  to  be  operated  for  the  profit  of  all. 

It  is,  of  course,  undeniable,  that  the  present  system 
of  government  in  the  United  States,  designed  to  keep  the 
popular  will  from  having  its  just  influence,  seems  very  re- 
mote from  the  Socialistic  ideal.  Before  we  can  have  Social- 
ism we  must  introduce  the  machinery  of  a  genuine  democ- 
racy. But  there  is  nothing  impossible  about  this  task. 
The  defects  of  our  present  system  are  now  so  apparent 

299 


Why  I  Am  a  Socialist 

that  we  shall  probably  be  driven  to  change  them  before 
we  are  ready  for  the  adoption  of  Socialism,  and  to  change 
them  in  such  a  way  that  thereafter,  whenever  the  people 
desire  Socialism,  they  can  have  it  without  delay  and  with- 
out friction.  If,  for  example,  we  should  abolish  all  the 
medieval  and  clumsy  devices  with  which  Hamilton  and  his 
fellow-monarchists  loaded  the  Constitution,  devices  to  pro- 
vide "  checks  on  the  popular  will,"  and  if  we  should  adopt 
in  their  stead  such  arrangements  as  other  nations  now  have 
to  carry  into  effect  every  decision  the  people  may  reach,  no 
other  change  would  be  necessary.  At  present,  of  course,  we 
are  cursed  with  the  very  worst  forms  of  that  representative 
government  that  all  about  the  world  has  proved  a  failure; 
but  it  is  inconceivable  that  these  anomalies  should  continue. 
Democracy  and  progress  have  long  gone  beyond  them,  and 
we  are  left  so  far  in  the  rear  that  the  national  self-respect, 
if  there  were  no  other  cause,  would  prove  a  sufficient  im- 
pulse to  reform. 

But  a  multiplicity  of  great  obstacles  has  always  been 
foreseen  in  the  path  of  every  great  advance  of  the  race, 
and  when  they  have  been  met  face  to  face,  lo,  evolution 
has  brushed  them  aside  like  dead  leaves.  While  we  are 
weighing  mighty  obstacles,  the  vast  changes  in  our  in- 
dustrial system  are  working  incessantly  in  the  one  direc- 
tion. We  could  no  more  go  back  now  to  the  old  days 
of  competition  in  the  trust-owned  lines  of  industry  than 
we  could  abolish  steamships  and  return  to  sailing  vessels. 
Fifty  years  ago  it  would  have  been  held  impossible  that 
one  family  should  have  a  monopoly  of  the  sugar  in- 
dustry, or  a  group  of  three  or  four  control  the  iron  in- 
dustry, or  another  own  the  oil  business.  One  generation 
has  seen  a  change  in  our  industrial  methods  so  great  that, 
on  looking  back,  it  seems  stupendous.     Yet,  does  any  per- 

300 


The  Way  of  the  World 

son  suppose  that  the  era  of  trusts  is  the  final  state  of 
man,  or  that  the  process  of  consolidating,  simplifying,  and 
improving  production  is  to  stop  when  all  the  country  is 
engaged  in  augmenting  the  incomparable  fortunes  of  six 
men? 

Clearly  the  next  stage  in  the  evolutionary  process  is 
the  substitution  of  the  community  for  the  individual  as 
the  beneficiary  of  consolidated  and  economized  production. 
And  this  is  the  end  towards  which  the  slow  development 
of  democracy  has  steadfastly  tended;  the  human  revolt 
against  political  autocracy  only  foreshadowed  the  revolt 
against  industrial  autocracy;  as  surely  as  men  were  destined 
to  democratize  government,  they  were  destined  to  democra- 
tize industry.  Industrial  serfdom  is  doomed  as  surely  as 
political  serfdom,  and  it  is  inconceivable  that  any  man 
that  really  believes  in  political  freedom  should  fail  to 
believe  equally  in  industrial  freedom,  of  so  much  greater 
importance  to  the  race. 

This  is  the  offer  of  Socialism:  the  righting  of  the  cen- 
turies of  wrong  the  producers  have  suffered,  the  dawn  of 
a  genuine  democracy,  peace  instead  of  war,  sufficiency  in- 
stead of  suffering,  life  raised  above  the  level  of  appetite, 
a  chance  at  last  for  the  good  in  men  to  attain  its  normal 
development.  In  view  of  the  opposition  it  has  aroused  in 
some  quarters,  we  may  profitably  remind  ourselves  that 
it  has  about  it  nothing  new  nor  alarming,  and  instead  of 
being  rejected  by  men,  it  should  be  welcomed;  for  the 
essence  of  its  doctrine  is  merely  the  practical  application 
of  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  Christ. 


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